Last year, Qantas expanded its regional fleet by wet leasing Embraer E190 jets from Alliance Airlines. These aircraft are now being used on many regional routes across Australia, particularly out of Adelaide, Darwin, Alice Springs, Canberra and Townsville.

The Embraer E190s flying for QantasLink have spacious cabins with Business and Economy seating. Economy seats are laid out in a comfortable 2-2 configuration (meaning there are no middle seats on the plane) while Business gets a 1-2 fit-out.

You can easily tell which Qantas flights will be operated by an Alliance Airlines E190 as the flight number takes the format of “QF19xx”. While the aircraft and crew are from Alliance Airlines, some of the jets are now painted in QantasLink colours and the crew wear Qantas uniforms. On board, Qantas service is provided.

So, what’s it like flying Business Class on a Qantas Embraer E190 operated by Alliance Airlines? I recently found out by flying from Adelaide to Darwin.

Flight Details

Flight number	QF1952
Route	Adelaide (ADL) to Darwin (DRW)
Aircraft type	Embraer E190
Class of travel	Business
Seat number	3A
On-time performance	We arrived 5 minutes early
Star rating

The route

Flight Cost

I booked this ticket using my Qantas Frequent Flyer points. The cost for a Business Classic Reward seat from Adelaide to Darwin is 41,500 Qantas points + $57 taxes & carrier charges.

If you were to buy a ticket, Qantas Business Class airfares from Adelaide to Darwin start from $2,087 one-way.

Airport Experience

Although this flight was operated by Alliance Airlines, the airport experience including check-in and lounge access was no different to any other Qantas flight.

There’s currently no Qantas Business Lounge at Adelaide Airport (this will be built next year). In the meantime, Business passengers can access the Qantas Club.

Although it lacks natural light and is starting to look a bit dated, the Adelaide Qantas Club is arguably still one of the best in the Qantas network. It’s a large space with lots of seating, work stations, showers, great staff and a range of food and drinks that would rival most of the Qantas domestic Business Lounges. It was a pleasant place to wait for my flight.

Other than that, navigating Adelaide Airport was a breeze and priority boarding was surprisingly painless.

The Hard Product

The Alliance Airlines E190s are second-hand and the interiors don’t appear to have been updated a great deal after being delivered from their previous owners. Some of the fleet came from Copa Airlines, while others came from a US regional airline that operated flights for American Airlines.

I happened to be on an ex-American E190. The Business cabin seemed relatively modern and the plane was in good condition.

On all the E190s, Business Class has a 1-2 layout. I was seated in 3A, a solo window & aisle seat on the left side of the cabin. The photo below is from an ex-Copa E190 courtesy of AFF member RooFlyer – my seat appeared in better condition than this but the layout was the same.

I’m a huge fan of the solo window seats. If travelling alone (or perhaps even if you’re not!), you can enjoy a great window view and direct aisle access without a seat neighbour to bother you.

The leather seat had an adjustable headrest and the tray table folded out from inside the right armrest. There was also a small drink holder that slid out from the front of the left armrest.

One downside of the Embraer E190 Business Class is that the overhead lockers above the solo seats are too small to fit a regular-sized carryon bag. The lockers on the other side of the aisle are larger, but there’s less overhead space overall.

There’s a low bulkhead wall behind the last row of Business, but no curtain or other physical cabin divider. This did result in some Economy passengers wandering up to the Business lavatory during the flight.

The only other downside of this aircraft type was that there was no wifi, in-flight entertainment or power outlets. QantasLink is rolling out Q-Streaming entertainment (which you can view on your personal electronic device) onto all E190 jets, but this particular plane hadn’t been upgraded yet.

Given the flight time of around four hours, the lack of wifi or entertainment could be disappointing to some. But that’s nothing a good book or a pre-downloaded podcast can’t fix! In fact, on this daytime flight, I was perfectly content with enjoying the view of the vast Australian continent.

As we flew north, the changes to the landscape were rather striking.

Approaching Darwin, things got a lot greener again…

The Soft Product

The two Alliance Airlines flight attendants were absolutely sensational and were probably the highlight of this flight. They were both incredibly friendly, enthusiastic and professional. Jenaya did a particularly great job of looking after Business Class.

There were no pre-departure drinks offered, but the meal service began shortly after take-off with a drink and a bag of almonds & pretzels.

For years, Qantas has served Grant Burge sparkling wine in domestic Business. But on this flight, the bubbles was Lois by The Lane Blanc de Blancs. This is now apparently being served instead of Grant Burge on longer domestic flights to Perth and Darwin. I really enjoyed this one!

While Economy passengers on this flight were served an eggplant curry for lunch, there were three meal options in Business:

• Beef in black pepper sauce with rice and Asian greens
• Chicken in mushroom sauce with potato purée, broccoli and carrots
• Grain salad with prosciutto, corn and spinach with a pomegranate vinaigrette

I chose the chicken, which was served with sourdough bread, a cream-filled lamington cake and a Lindt chocolate ball. The meal was nice, and since Qantas no longer serves soup as a starter on longer domestic flights, the pool of liquid in the bottom of the dish was perfect for dipping the bread into. 😉

After lunch, the flight attendant mentioned that they had some leftover salads and as I was still slightly hungry, she was happy to bring me one. It was a tasty, fresh salad which I enjoyed a lot.

Tea and coffee were offered after lunch, and the cabin crew regularly dropped by with drink top-ups and to check if I needed anything. A full range of drinks were available including soft drinks, juice, beer, wine and spirits. In addition to the sparkling wine, there was a sauvignon blanc and a Barossa shiraz on the drinks trolley.

Later in the flight, Business passengers were served vanilla ice cream (Economy passengers received cheese & crackers for the second service). The crew also came through the cabin with bottles of water and more Lindt chocolates.

I also enjoyed a gin & tonic with some more of those addictive Santos nuts & pretzels before landing.

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.