Hey everyone,
First review of mine here, from a recent flight
The booking
With multiple public holidays coming up in the last week of August, we decided to book a family trip to Amritsar and New Delhi.
IndiGo is the only carrier flying nonstop between Bengaluru and Amritsar. So that's the flight we booked ourselves onto. This flight is operated by the carrier's A321neo aircraft.
We booked our tickets a month in advance, 20 July to be precise.
The day of the journey
BMTC operates Vayu Vajra services between various parts of the city and the airport at frequent intervals using air-conditioned Volvo 8400 buses, but we were a group of 4 so booking a cab turned out to be the cheaper(and more convenient) option. I had pre-booked a cab a few days in advance, and the driver turned up right on time.
Waiting for our cab at 04:30 in the morning. Indiranagar is always a vibe
It took us about 50 minutes to reach the airport.
Kempegowda International airport's Terminal 1 is much less flamboyant than the newly opened Terminal 2, but is still one of India's most modern terminals.
BLR Terminal 1
The guards at the entrance insisted for a hard copy of the boarding pass for some reason, but the security checks were a breeze otherwise, and we headed to the 080 lounge afterward.
The lounge is operated by Travel Food Services, and "080" refers to Bengaluru's STD code. The lounge is outstanding. It's divided into a number of dedicated zones, ambience is great, and a wide choice of food options are available.
080 Domestic lounge
After spending some time at the lounge, we headed to the gates. Our flight was to depart from gate #25, which was on the ground floor.
There was still quite some time left for the boarding of our flight to begin, so I decided to do a bit of planespotting.
Since September last year, Terminal 1 at Bengaluru is being used exclusively by LCCs (IndiGo, Akasa Air, Alliance Air and SpiceJet) for their domestic flights. All international flights as well as the domestic flights of Air India group carriers and Star Air are handled by Terminal 2.
I spotted quite a few Go First aircraft in long-term storage on the ramp, and it was quite the sad sight. It reminded me of a more competitive era of Indian aviation. There were also a few IndiGo aircraft parked due to the P&W engine issues.
Akasa's VT-YAL all pushed back and ready to head to Ahmedabad, as a few stored IndiGo/Go First A320s look on
IndiGo's VT-ICO arriving after a 2.5 hour flight from Jaipur
A JBM electric tarmac coach of IndiGo. A significant part of IndiGo's tarmac coach fleet at Bengaluru is electric.
VT-AAZ, the only aircraft operating for Prime Air in India, that just arrived from Delhi
Boarding started 40 minutes before departure. We were bused to our plane on a conventionally powered coach built by Veera Vahana. The design is similar to that of COBUS 3000.
VT-ILH getting ready to fly to Delhi
VT-IBI all set for a flight to Thiruvananthapuram
Two of the 11 'white-tailed' A320ceos wet-leased by IndiGo from SmartLynx due to P&W engine issues
An E175LR operated by Star Air, India's only commercial operator of Embraer aircraft
VT-AEI 'Uday', one of the five ex-Delta 777-200LRs inducted by AI, getting ready for a 17 hour non-stop to San Francisco as AI175 later in the day
First sight of VT-IBB, our flight for the day
Hey there, IBB!
Our flight for the day was VT-IBB, a 1.8 year old A321neo. The aircraft has 232 seats in an all-economy configuration. IBB had arrived at Bengaluru after a flight from Abu Dhabi.
The flight was half empty, so an A320 would have sufficed.
The cabin was spotless and felt fresh. My seat was 17A in the middle of the aircraft. The seats have a legroom of 30 inches.
IndiGo had turned 18 earlier in the month, and they made sure to flaunt that on the headrest covers and magazines. I personally am a lover of the consistency maintained by IndiGo with regard to their brand, and the quirky messages they place everywhere.
The interior of the Airbus
How time flies, indeed!
IndiGo's inflight magazine
Parked next to us was VT-ILU, which was scheduled to head to Hyderabad soon afterwards
A6-EGP arriving from Dubai as EK564
We pushed back at 08:56. We were to take off from Runway 27L.
A fleet of Air India Express 737s, new and old
We had to wait for a couple of Vistara and IndiGo aircraft to land, but we were soon good to go. The CFM LEAP-1A30s powered up and we took off from Bengaluru at 09:13.
A couple of IndiGo A320s landing as we wait to take off
The climb was smooth, and we were soon cruising at 38,000 feet. We did encounter a bit of turbulence at times, but it was mostly an eventless flight. The cabin crew were utmost professional and helpful.
Goodbye, garden city
Cruising at 38,000 feet
Up above the clouds
We slowly descended and landed at Amritsar's Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport at 11:58. The airport is operated by Airports Authority of India, and felt tiny compared to Bengaluru airport.
We joined an Air India 787-8, an Air India Express 737-800 and two IndiGo A320s at the gates.
Hello, Amritsar!
Air India's 737-800 VT-GHI featuring the Golden Temple on its tail, right at home in Amritsar
We exited the aircraft and had our boarding passes checked before being transported to the terminal in an Ashok Leyland tarmac coach.
The aircraft would go on to Srinagar with the same flight number, so some of the passengers stayed aboard.
Amritsar was quite warmer than Bengaluru, so it did take me some time to get used to the climate.
Air India's Dreamliner VT-ANB being prepped for a short hop to Delhi
We got out of the airport and booked a cab on Uber to head to the city. Both Uber and Ola cabs are available to be booked at reasonable rates in Amritsar.
The exterior of Amritsar airport
And so began my much-awaited exploration of Amritsar (and later on Delhi as well)
The iconic Golden Temple!
Hi there, thanks for sharing your first report here with us!
While very basic, IndiGo seem to offer a good value and experience given their popularity and huge amount of growth.
The interior of the A321neo looks a bit old school for such a new aircraft but the bright side is that the seats look thicker and more comfortable than most ultra slimline seats on LCCs these days. Would be nice to have USB power and/or streaming IFE but those are not expected on a low-cost carrier. I suppose the lack of amenities keep prices low.
Thanks for sharing!