#28 out of 94 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings.
21 reviews
Hello and welcome to another Flight Report!!
This is FR number 6 of 8 covering my recent trip to China and India and today I'll be flying from Kolkata to Mumbai on Vistara. I knew I had to fly on them this trip before their merger into Air India and I'm super excited to see what they're like (and also what flying domestic in India is like in general).
For those who are unfamiliar, Vistara is a relatively new airline having commenced operations in 2015 as a joint venture between Tata and Singapore Airlines. Tata (or the Tata Group) is quite a funny company in that most people who have never been to India most likely won't have heard of them and those that live in the country will be amazed if they find anyone who haven't used one of their products. The brand is basically everywhere in India and can be seen on cars, shops, hotels, appliances, industries (like steel) and many more. Honestly, it's hard to believe they don't just own the entire country at this point. Along with Vistara, the brand also owns Air Asia India and had just made a huge purchase of national flag carrier Air India and its subsidiary Air India Express recently. Because of that acquisition, Vistara will be merged into Air India and Air Asia India will be merged into Air India Express, creating a huge flag carrier as well as a LCC that will challenge Indigo.
Honestly, I'm not sure how I feel about this merger. It basically means that a country with a huge aviation market basically have just one full-service carrier, meaning that most domestic flight options comes down to either Air India or a LCC. And judging on the quality of Air India… yeah. I'll be flying Air India on my next FR and it was… surprising (no spoilers). I just feel like it's such a huge shame for a country the size of India, especially in the long-haul market.
Anyway, I paid £65 for this flights, which isn't too bad considering that it's only a bit more than on a LCC. Checked luggage is included in the base fare.
From 2023, I aim to offset all of my CO2 emission from flights. All emissions are calculated using the ICAO Carbon Emissions Calculator and I will be funding projects approved by The Gold Standard. The CO2 output for this trip is:
CCU-BOM: 125kg
Total for 2023 (so far): 3421kg
Here's the video report, it's got pretty much the same thing content wise.
Gosh… how long are these airport names in India?? Even just shortening it to 'NSCBI' Airport is a mouthful (plus it just sounds like a secret service agency haha).
Taking an Uber to the airport. No crazy taxi-related story this time (check out my last FR on that). Also the traffic here is terrible (along with the road quality).
But finally, here we are at the drop off area. There's a ticket and ID check at the entrance, which is why there's a crowd of people there. I'm just starting to realize that queueing isn't really a thing here, except I could never get used to not queue even though I know a lot of people will often just cut in front without any care (I am from the UK, after all).
Here's the check-in area.
The counters for Vistara is on the left. There's absolutely no queues (as you can see).
Security took around 10 minutes and here we are airside. A food court can be seen in front.
There's also a nice selection of shops selling souvenirs/other products too although strangely I couldn't find any shops selling water (or other snacks). There must be at least one somewhere but I couldn't find it. It's really weird as I was thirsty and just couldn't find anywhere that sold bottled water (thank god Vistara gave out water or else I'd most likely not made it to the end haha).
But overall, it's a small but nice airport (apart from the lack of water).
Ironically, as I mentioned the lack of water, there's a sign pointing to drinking water… which is helpful if you brought a bottle through security although I don't really trust filtered water here (even in airports), preferring to get bottled water instead.
View of the apron with an Indigo A320neo (VT-ITX) pushing back for Bangalore (BLR) and right in front is a Vistara A320neo (VT-TNU) that will be heading to Delhi (DEL).
The seats here at the gate.
An Air Asia India A320 in the Kabali Livery (VT-APJ) heading to Siliguri (IXB). Yeah, I had no idea where it was either. It's a city in that rather interesting part of India that's in the middle of Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh.
Oh look! Here's our plane arriving from Mumbai.
Flight time today will be around 2 hours 30 minutes and here is our route:
Our plane parked at the gate.
Some info about our plane:
Type: Airbus A320neo.
Registration: VT-TNV
First flight: 22 November 2019
Age: ~4 years
Config: C8/W24/Y126
Strangely, this'll actually be my second time reviewing a Vistara cabin. I stumbled upon a random ex-Vistara A320 when I was flying on Air Serbia a while ago (gosh, I can't believe that was in the same year… 2023's been crazy).
This cabin is much newer than that one. It has a phone holder and USB port as well an ad on the tray table.
The legroom - average.
First views out of the window.
An Air India A319 pulling in from… a far and distant land (yeah, I forgot to check).
Pushback 15 minutes late.
Photo of the international section.
And takeoff!! Bye bye West Bengal!
View of the suburbs around Kolkata right after takeoff.
It's a beautiful day today - perfect for flying! ;)
Climbing through the clouds.
Lets have a look at the contents of the seatback pocket, which includes:
- A fairly worn safety card
- An air sickness bag
- An inflight magazine
Vistara's domestic and international routes (as well as Singapore and Lufthansa codeshares).
- And finally, another really worn information card on the wi-fi/IFE system onboard.
It basically tells you how to connect and what to do.
I followed the instructions on the card and got greeted by this error. Apparently Vistara has the 20th best IFE in the world… if it's working.
While I was busy trying (and ultimately, failing) to get the IFE working. The crew came around with breakfast. There was an option of vegetarian or non-vegetarian. I went with the vegetarian. It was baked beans in tomato sauce, baked potatoes and an omelet. A bun, butter and a bottle of water (thank god!) was also provided. It's not as good as the ones Chinese airlines has been spoiling me with, but very nice nonetheless (especially for a domestic flight).
View out of the window during breakfast.
Pretty soon, we're starting our descent into Mumbai.
Sadly weather here in Mumbai isn't as good as in Kolkata.
First views of the city.
On final approach.
View of the slums near the airport.
Welcome to Maharashtra! We landed on time.
Sadly, the windows fogged up immediately after landing so that's the last of the photos.
How do you even begin to pronounce that??
We pretty much walked straight from the gate and into the baggage reclaim area - very convenient.
It took around 10 minutes for my bag to arrive and here's the arrivals area landside.
And here's the area outside - non-passengers aren't allowed into the building so everyone waiting to pick up friends/relatives have to wait here.
A very nice display here as well. It really brightens the whole place up.
That concludes my first domestic flight in India! I'd added a tourism bonus of my time in Mumbai, my next FR will be on another domestic flight but on Air India. Thanks for reading and see you there! ;)
A very nice flight with Vistara. The seats are really nice and comes with a USB port and phone holder and a hot meal is always nice for a 2 hour domestic flight. Sadly the IFE/Wi-Fi wasn't working for me but apparently it's quite good. Bye bye Vistara, you will be missed. Only time will tell if Vistara's product will pass on to Air India after the merger, I really hope so.
Kolkata NSCBI Airport (CCU) - A fairly nice airport. A good selection of shops and restaurants/fast food chains but I couldn't find anywhere that sold bottled water for some reason. A bit crowded but it wasn't too bad in the morning.
Mumbai CSMI Airport (BOM) - Very nice and modern airport with a lot of vegetation around - it almost feels like a mini Singapore Changi with all the greenery. The only downside is the lack of transportation from the airport. You can technically go to the city on a combination of bus and train but it just isn't practical for most people with luggage. At least there's plenty of Ubers and taxis available but it does mean spending ages stuck in the Mumbai traffic.
1 Comments
Wow I could not even begin to try to say that full name hahahaa
Yikes! I drink so much water whenever I travel as I'm always afraid of dehydration when flying, which is never fun.
Hah, that's right! 2023 has been a crazy year for me as well. I'll never get around to posting even half of all the flights I did...which was already the case in 2022 haha
Haha oh no! I have heard great things about it...when it's working. Bad luck there!
There's that British influence! Beans for breakfast is fine in a well ventilated space on the ground haha...but not in a plane ?
Nevertheless kudos to Vistara for a full hot meal on a 2.5h domestic flight!
We'll see what happens with the merger as operations begin to be integrated soon. AI have already begun upgrading their fleet, but they have many miles to go yet before matching Vistara's consistently good level.
Thanks a lot for sharing; really enjoying this series!
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