Review of Air India flight Kolkata Aizawl in Economy

Airline Air India
Flight AI713
Class Economy
Seat 16a
Aircraft Airbus A319
Flight time 01:40
Take-off 08 Oct 16, 11:45
Arrival at 08 Oct 16, 13:25
AI   #54 out of 96 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings. 97 reviews
Succubus21
Published on 3rd November 2016
SO this is my First trip report and forgive me for the bad pictures as they are clicked on my phone as my camera was with my check in luggage.

i arrived at the airport fairly early at around 9:15 for a 11:45 flight since it was the pujas and we were expecting congestion. But it just took a 1:05 hours and we were there quite early.

The new integrated terminal at kolkata is nice.The international side has in line baggage screening but the domestic doesn't yet have it. Since it was the festive season and there was tight security the check in guy asked me if i have any power bank, camera batter in the handbag and i replied negative.

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The X-ray kiosk was relatively empty and baggage were scanned within 5 minutes. Check in took some time as there were many AI flights at that time {gau-A319, ixa-A319,Del-B788 along With DMU-A319 and ours}

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the security line was not big but as i was being screened , the line grew and one disgruntled passenger asked the cisf personnel to open a few more security screening kiosks and the cisf jawan replied in a low voice " aadmi nehi hai sir"( no free jawans now,sir)

after security and crossing the terminal i was airside. Kolkata has a few food stalls, a food court, and a few Duty free stalls in the domestic area. There are many cafes near the parking and the arrivals floor but there are only a handful in the departure floor. our Gate was 16 which was common gate for international and domestic flights and was Seperated by a gate which was locked, so we took a seat near gate 17.




Bonus : Click here display
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Indigo rules the ccu terminal with many flights at that time. I was checking the gates and i saw around 5 Indigo A320s ( del,blr,bkk gau,dmu, at the gates and the 3 A320s (maa,dmu,ixb) at the remote bays.
There was a vistara A320 to IXZ at gate 19 which was boarding and a lot of people were queued up. VISTARA seems to be doing well in ccu.
A few Jet airways B737 adorned the gates like the ones to bom,del,ajl,gau and a jetkonnect liveried B737 to gau. There were also a Goair A320

On the International side there was a Biman bangladesh , Druk to paro, Regent to Dac and the EMIRATES B777 to DXB






i found the Bishwa bangla stall at the far end of the terminal around gate 25 and it is a nice way to promote bengal where one can buy traditional bengal clothing and food, handicraft items. Saw the business class lounge on the upper floor


The gates to Gate 16 and the waiting hall opened at 11 and boarding was called at 11:10, 5 minutes before estimated time and our plane was an Indian Airlines liveried A319(VT-scc if i am not wrong)
Boarding was smooth and completed fast within 20 minutes. The air hostess greeted us with namaste . Gates were closed at 11:35 and we started push back at 11:43, 2 minutes prior to departure time. The taxi to rwy 19R was long and we were in line after an INDIGO flight. Manual safety procedure was shown and we were airborne at 11;53 and we took a swaying turn towards east and were over the bangladesh in a few minutes.

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Leg space was nice as compared to indigo in which i traveled before.

Seatback contents were the A319 safety cards, two newspapers-one Hindi and other English and a torn Air india in flight magazine. Since it was cloudy and raining, turbulence continued for almost 15 minutes after departure. The seatbelt and smoking lights were not working and the purser finally announced that seatbelt sign was turned off.





within no time the service began. There was no choice as this was a short flight. EACH tray was catered by Tajsats and has a tissue, a small water bottle, a indian flat bread, some rice,dal, and a veg curry with an indian rajbhog desert. The food was tasty but a little small in proportion.















after the meal trays were collected and more water bottles were supplied. No beverage was offered which was weird.
i went to the lav and it was clean but the toilet paper were not arranged properly. There was a handwash with a nice fragrance

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we beagn our descent into imphal and we could see amnipur very clearly. We touched down at tulihal airport at 12: 52 and taxiied for 5 minutes to the gate. The passengers to imphal deplaned and then a thorough check was conducted by the police and the cabin was cleaned. Then people again boarded who wished to go to ccu via ajl. At 1;35 gates were closed, manual safety procedures were shown and finally wetook off again at 1;47after a show taxi.








Flight time was said to be 20 minutes and within 22 minutes we touched down at ajl. At ajl a b737 by Jet airways was being boarded for del via gau.

While de boarding police checked our bp and id, maybe because mizoram is under strict vigil.

The airport was just bad,simply bad. We had to walk for 500 mtrs to the terminal, the airport was non-ac, only two conveyor belt which were broken, dirty lavs and it took nearly 30 minutes to get the first luggage.






Seeing the horrible condition of the airport and only a 55 minutes flight time while returning i decided not to report it



BONUS- Pictures from my mizoram tour and ironically the state is far more clear than the airport, actually a very nice, clear , literate state




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Verdict

Air India

4.9/10
Cabin4.5
Cabin crew6.5
Entertainment/wifi2.0
Meal/catering6.5

Kolkata - CCU

7.6/10
Efficiency7.0
Access8.0
Services7.0
Cleanliness8.5

Aizawl - AJL

0.8/10
Efficiency1.0
Access1.0
Services1.0
Cleanliness0.0

Conclusion

Allover a nice flight except the AJL airport

AAI has worked very hard to turn the old ccu into this new and nice terminal. Air india continues to be sloppy with dirty trays and unorganised lava but excel in food and legspace.

AJL is a full state government managed airport and thus is so bad that it feeels cramped like my school

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2 Comments

If you liked this review or if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to post a comment below !
  • Comment 372785 by
    Pilpintu TEAM 997 Comments
    Hello Succubus!!

    SO this is my First trip report

    Welcome aboard!!! :D

    and forgive me for the bad pictures

    They are OK. The most important thing is that they show interesting aspects of your flight. There's something for everyone here: plane spotting, the airport premises, the food, etc. You did very well!! Just don't pack you camera in the checked baggage next time!! XD

    BTW, the meal service looks great for a domestic flight!! Other memebers that have read my reports will immediately know why this is so important to me. :(

    Seeing the horrible condition of the airport and only a 55 minutes flight time while returning i decided not to report it

    Please, do it!!! That won't make it less interesting!! On the contrary, we will appreciate good airports more!! And, who knows, the local authorities will read your report and improve things a little.

    Or arrest you. :O

    Anyways. Thanks for sharing!!!
  • Comment 372820 by
    AK 1085 Comments
    Thank you for this report ! There are not so many reports in this part of the world on this website !

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