Hello welcome to my flight report in this report will be trying Air India "The Maharaja" the government airline of India. Reviews were always mixed for Air India. AI don't offer non veg meals in their domestic flights as a part of cost cutting. But in this sector COk-Maa Flight fare was less equalling to Bus or AC train fare in the same route.
Check out the video of this trip below
One Tip: Air India usually reduces fare on some of the non peak routes considerably on the last week before journey.
Check in
After arriving at Cochin Airport just after 4PM , I made my way up to departures and Once inside, I walked over to Air india check-in It was less busy inside the terminal and there was a slight confusion. I was searching for the baggage screening counter and then the staff told it's not required. Then we headed to the security in 1st floor.
Some lovely Kerala Traditional artifacts near the security gate.
Domestic terminal in CIAL Cochin is filled with adequate amount of shops and seating, we had a light snack in one of the KFC's near gate 6. On reaching gate 3 we found out our flight has been delayed and also there was a gate change announcement to gate 1. Our flight is an Airbus A320 one of Air india's mixed cabin with 8 business class and rest filled with economy class.
Boarding was little chaotic and there was a long queue stretching upto next gate.
Air India 510
Cochin (COK) – Chennai (MAA)
Depart: 18:50PM
Arrive: 19:45PM
Duration: 55mins
Aircraft: Airbus A320-200
Seat: 15A (Economy Class)
THe seat
Once onboard, I settled into my seat near the window. First impressions, legroom was decent and seat back had a safety card. Flight had mixed seating with 8 business class seats in 2x2 layout and the rest with Economy class in standard 3x3 layout. Occupancy looked full on all classes for the same flight
The seatback had no IFE's. No blankets or pillows will be provided in this flight. We pushed back 30mins behind schedule and After a short taxi to the active runway, we were airborne towards Chennai.
Surprisingly lights were never turned back on after getting airborne.
No Food
AI usually offers complimentary Lunch/Snack but in this flight even after 30mins nothing was served except business class and the lights were still turned off it was pitch dark all the way which was dissapointing.
Then I asked the staff for water bottle and he provided free of cost on request basis. I have travelled in the same fight in 2015 by then AI offered tea,biscuits and light snacks. Which is a let down.
landing
The flight attendants started preparing for landing 20minutes before touchdown.
It was a smooth landing and we touched down almost 40mins behind schedule which was not so impressive on AI's part.
Flight routing
- 1
Oh dear... not what you'd want to see with AI. The lack of service is unfortunate, yet unsurprising. Several years ago I'm sure you'd know 9W, IT, IC & S2 had fantastic meals even on short flights, but now with no competition and cost savings being priority there is little to no hope of some kinda snack service making a return...
I was very surprised because a month back in alliance air they gave away small snack and a water bottle. Not a good sign from AI. Let's see how airlines perform after covid-19