Review of Akasa Air flight from Mumbai to Kolkata in Economy

Another first for Flight-Report English: the first Akasa Air FR!

Background

This flight was the last of a six-flight trip to the Middle East, which was built around an under $400 long-haul business ticket and a chance to fly the A330-800.
BOM-CCU is among the most competitive routes in India with four of the five main airlines (and all of the four main airline groups) operating: IndiGo, Air India, SpiceJet, and Akasa Air. Of those IndiGo I always avoid and SpiceJet was at a bad time and isn't a great airline either. Air India had better timings and they are full service while Akasa is low cost, but I'd never flown Akasa and I wanted to try it out and support it.
The flight was booked for ₹8,616 ($99) on MakeMyTrip and was a similar price on Akasa's website. Quite expensive for the route in general but similar to all the other airlines on these dates. Flying this route the other way on Air India in late September was just ₹4,800 (then $58) and that was booked barely a day before departure.
Before booking the flight, I did notice that it was delayed by at least an hour almost every day due to a delay earlier in the day in Goa, and this continued (almost) every day up until my date of travel. There was an offer to pay ₹200 ($2.3) and get ₹1,000 ($11.55) back if the flight was delayed for an hour or longer, which seemed like a good offer to take because of the flight status most days. But when I worked out the aircraft that would likely be assigned to the flight on the 2nd and looked at its schedule every flight, including the one out of Goa, was on time. The one time where I was hoping for a delay!

Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Airport

Mumbai Airport gets its name from Shivaji, a powerful 17th century king.

This part of BOM was new to me, my only post-COVID flights out of Mumbai were on Vistara and Air India which operate from a different (nicer) terminal.

There was a documents check outside the airport, as is standard in India. What's not standard is this display sort of in the middle.

There were Christmas decorations at the whole row of check-in counters.

There was no line when I got there but it fillled up quite quickly afterwards.
A Santa display decorated the end of the check in area, security was upstairs.

IndiGo was, of course, very dominant.

Security was a little chaotic but it didn't take too long and there was a while to wait until boarding, even though there wasn't much of a delay.

Boarding

Our aircraft arrived from Ahmedabad a few minutes late. While there was no view of the aircraft from the gate but flightradar confirmed my expectation that it was VT-YBA, a 737 MAX 8 that, at the time of flying, was nearing three years of age and one year flying for Akasa; it had originally been intended for Shenzhen-based Donghai Airlines.

Boarding was a complete mess with lots of convering lines and people trying to push ahead and cut the line. The staff tried to keep it organized and board in groups but it was a difficult task.
There was a long wait between the gate and the jetbridge, during which I got photos of some IndiGo A320s and the front of our Akasa 737-8.

After waiting a bit longer we could finally board the plane.

I tried to get a quick picture of the open door on the other side, you don't see that too often.

There were extra legroom seats at the front, available for a fee.

There was a long wait on the plane as well, since my seat was in row 28. There was an extra hold up at row 19: a couple was sitting in 19F and 19E, but one of them seemed to have their seat assigned in row 31, and they were trying to convince the person whose seat they'd taken to go to their seat in row 31. I did get a lot of pictures of the seats in the meantime. Seats with headrests in three colors are pictured here, I think there were four total.

And finally, 28F, my seat.

Seat

Pretty standard seat, nearly identical to Air India Express' 737-8.

Headrests were adjustable.

Literature pocket as well as a regular seatback pocket.

There were USB-A charging ports. I believe Akasa is the only Indian carrier to have them across the entire fleet.

Personal lights and air vents.

The tray table was a little adjustable.

The seatback pocket contained a safety card (it was announced that they had braille safety cards)…

…and a buy on board menu for Café Akasa. Most meals needed to be pre-selected, and what was available on board was cheaper if chosen beforehand online. Prices seemed generally reasonable.

The crew handed out cups of water to everyone before we pushed back. It's a small service but a very nice and appreciated touch that makes it feel less low cost.

Planespotting & Departure

We were at the gate for quite some time, I'm not sure what the reason was.

In the distance were several parked aircraft, including former Air India 747s and A320s in the colors of GoFirst.

An Emirates 777 passed by, arriving from (as you may have guessed) Dubai-International.

A Vistara Air India A321neo turned around next to us.

Followed by VT-YAV, an Akasa 737 MAX parking alongside its comrade.

Followed by VT-CIO, an Air India A320neo with Mahatma Gandhi on the tail.

A "normal" Air India A320neo came next.

VT-YAV prepared to deboard and a pair of IndiGo A321neos went by, while we remained stationary.

Another Akasa 737 MAX had joined us by the time we pushed back.

The interior lighting was changed in preparation for departure.

An Air India A320neo in the new livery flew off into the sunset.

We passed the ex-AI 747s and Go A320s.

And although you can barely see them, in the distance a small Jet Airways fleet.

The sun was setting quickly as we readied for takeoff.

Mumbai was quickly left behind as VT-YBA flew into the night, just a few minutes too early to get compensation.

In-Flight

Buy-on-board service commenced soon after takeoff. I had pre-ordered a bhel puri for ₹150 ($1.7), ₹50 cheaper than it would have been if I had bought it on the flight. It came with a complimentary hot or soft drink, I asked for hot chocolate. The price was reasonable considering there were two items.

Bhel puri is an Indian street food consisting of puffed rice, sev (thin, crunchy flour noodles) and sometimes a few other ingredients, mixed with sweet and spicy chutney.

I had the hot chocolate first, it was surprisingly good. Then I opened up the container…

…and the main packet, then filled up the container with it.

I added the chutney packet…

…and mixed it all up.

It was excellent, crunchy and flavorful and a great snack overall. If I fly Akasa in the future I'd probably get this again.
It was only after finishing that I noticed the instructions. I wish I had followed them, it would have been more fun than mixing it with a spoon!

I used the lavatory after my snack, it was generally clean.
I wonder why they use blue here instead of purple.

We flew over the city of Nagpur around 7:30 PM, all the roads snaking out in different directions looked very interesting.

The rest of the flight was uneventful. There wasn't much interaction with the crew and they weren't that friendly, though not unfriendly (for example, at the beginning of the flight when they had passed out water, I smiled and said thank you and then the FA also smiled, but not before that).

Arrival & Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Airport

The lighting was darkened before our descent into Kolkata.

It took me far too long to figure out the timing to get a picture of the winglet when it was lit up.

Welcome to Kolkata

Mostly IndiGo aircraft on the ground as usual.

There was an Air India A319 too.

We parked next to an Air India A320neo. While it retains the Vistara livery for now, "operated by Air India" is written on the side.

It also has an Air India sticker on the front (in the red circle).

People wasted no time getting up.

Deplaning was by airstairs from the back of the plane for rows in the back. I got a couple of pictures of the cabin on the way out.

Sorry for the blurry picture.

The same Air India plane we parked next to was off.

View of the plane from the bus.

I kind of like this picture of the Air India A320.

The bus dropped everyone off at the terminal entrance.

Last view of our plane.

It was a bit of a walk to baggage claim and by then bags had arrived.

Domestiv arrivals tonight, the white boxes are Air India Express flights. You probably won't be able to read the names on the second screen.

Out into the chaos!

This concludes the Middle Eastern trip report. Have a look at the other flights if you haven't yet, and thanks for reading.