Transit at Adelaide

For quite some time, Melbourne has been my choice of transit to Canberra (come on Canberra, build an international terminal!) for a few reasons:

  • Chief reason is that its international terminal building is not separated from its domestic terminal building like Sydney
  • There are many more flights to/from Canberra and to/from KL compared to, say, Perth
  • There are flights with appropriate time of arrival at Canberra and KL
Air Asia X late last year launched flights between KL and Adelaide and as expected had cheap tickets for its inaugural flights (horrendous experience yet to be told). After confirming that Adelaide airport housed both its international and domestic terminals under the same building, I bought a return ticket.

Here are my thoughts on Adelaide airport
  • Building looked new (good)
  • Far fewer people than Melbourne (good)
  • But negated by fewer immigration and custom check counters (bad)
  • Small and so could get to departure gate quickly (good)
  • Fewer choices of food (bad)
  • I had expensive less-than-average-quality California rolls whereas Melbourne had good cheap ones (bad)
All-in-all, it took me about 80 mins to pass through immigration and custom checks, similarly long as Melbourne's. This time, however, right after the immigration counter, an officer "conversed" with me at great length:
  • Why are you going to Canberra?
  • Have you booked your connecting flight?
  • Which airline are you flying on to Canberra?
  • How long has your sister been living in Canberra?
  • What is she doing in Canberra?
  • How often do you visit her?
  • What did you study?
  • What's your job now?
  • Etc
Gosh, I thought I was giving verbal autobiography :) It went well though and done professionally. Kudos to the officers for such random checks.

Will I fly via Adelaide in future? Probably not, chiefly because Melbourne has more choices of flights to/from Canberra and that makes it easier to coordinate with my sister. Sorry, Adelaide!

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