Review of Air India Express flight from Lucknow to Hyderabad in Economy

Namaste / Swadeeakhrap 🙏

Air India Express has recently undergone some deep changes to its services and physical appearances as well plus they have been adding a new fleet of 737 MAX 8 aircrafts and I have been lucky to have flown this new fleet recently.

YOUTUBE Link to this Flight Report 👇🏻

https://youtu.be/Xswm5ssE6wU


Welcome to my Flight Report with Air India Express (IX2814) from my homebase, Lucknow (LKO) to Hyderabad (HYD).Given I reside within 3 KMs of my homebase, I usually arrive at the airport 4 and sometimes even 5 Hours before departure but this time I was going on a pilgrimage with my mom so I arrived just an hour before the depature time as we had already web checked in and had just carry on with us.

My homebase's newest Terminal 3 is an integerated terminal with both Domestic and International Operations handled within the same terminal but its quite massive and spacious enough to manage both the operations.I like this domestic departures hallway that leads to the lounge/gate area.This hallway is decorated with colourful flowered glasses and is a popular photo/selfie spot for passengers.

Our Flight is being operated with a Boeing 737 MAX 8 Registration (VT-BXZ) which flew in from Dubai (DXB) and the boarding started right on time through the ground floor boarding gates which obviously means it was a shuttle bus boarding which I personally despise but it is what it is.

Me and my mom seated on 21F & 21E respectively swiftly got settled in our seats which were very comfortable also I must mention this aircraft and presumably the entire fleet of 737 MAX 8 aircrafts of AIX have 8 Business Class Seats as well. The cabin lighting was very soothing as I could see it change colours during different phases of the flight and I think this feature is on all the MAXes as I have flown a different airline's MAX in the past too and even that aircraft had a very beautiful inflight lighting shades.

Seat Pocket contents included a basic flight safety card and the Air India Express "Gourmair" meal selection/Sales Booklet.Though Air India Express is a Low Cost Airline / Subsidiary of Air India at least they offer FREE bottled water to all the passengers which I think other LCC's could and should do too and if not bottled water at least others could serve it in the paper cups like IndiGo airline (6E) does but then thats just my opinion. Eventually all airlines operate with their costs and spending with their profits in mind so I dont blame any airline.

We took off right on time from RWY 27 and turned left to the South towards HYD as we ascended to our cruising altitude of 38,000FT and as soon as we levelled up to climb the Seat Belt Signs were Off and Cabin Crew began their inflight services.

I had pre-booked my meal for this flight and it was a mixed veg herb roll which is actually one of the popular options that I have had onboard Air India Express when it operated under TATA's as Air Asia India because this gourmair menu was a part of Ex Air Asia India and Im glad they still have some of my favourite meal options.

The Vegetable Herb Roll sandwich comes with a beverage option and you can opt from a fruit juices or aerated drinks and water bottles are free of cost so you can ask for as many as you wish.

The ingredients of the vegetable roll included mayo,yellow and red peppers,onions,tomatoes etc and spices also slices of cheese to top it all with.

Overall it was a good size sandwich and it tasted as fresh as it smelled and packed so Im happy with the meal

This sector is just about a 2 hours sector so other than the meal service and no inflight entertainment options the rest of the flight was quite uneventful and the Cabin lights were dimmed as we cruised at FL 380 and thankfully it was clear skies with no clouds so I did what I love to do i.e guessed the cities or towns that we were flying over with the hint of lights that I could see on the ground.

After about 1 and a half hour the Cabin lights were cranked up again and I could feel the descent of the aircraft towards our destination as the crew began clearing the cabin and prepared it for arrival into HYD

And after 1 Hours and 50 Minutes we finally landed at Hyderabad International Airport (HYD) and vacated the runway to parked at the gate of the newly expanded terminal of HYD.

Overall a good and comfortable two hours flight with Air India Express and I won't mind flying them again in the future.