Namaste & Swadeekhrap everyone !
Today we are flying from the beautiful city of Indore (IDR) to my homebase Lucknow (LKO), we are flying with IndiGo flight 6E 7244, an evening flight with the anticipated flight duration of 1 hour and 45 Minutes.We will be flying a brand new ATR 72-600 registration (VT-IRO)
YOUTUBE link to this flight -:
https://youtu.be/VR-J9hnGISw
Indore's Devi Ahilya Bai holkar International Airport (IDR) is a single level integrated terminal with daily flights to various cities and towns acrosa India and an international flight to the Middle east along with seasonal Hajj Flights to Saudi Arabia.The terminal has 5 aerobridge gates and an extended tarmac to accomodate 4-6 A320/21/739 type aircrafts.
This evening we are flying aboard IndiGo's brand new (Delivered in JAN 2025) and last of its 50 ATR 72-600s (Reg. VT-IRO) which is operating as flight 6E 7244 and the anticipated flight time is 1 hour and 45 Minutes.I really like flying the ATR aircrafts and love it because of its fuel efficiency and bio fuel options and less emmisions which is directly propotional to an environment friendly flying.Its engines are made in a fashion that it doesn't obstruct the passengers' window view unlike other similar regional prop jets like Dash 8, so its always great to fly this regional champion.
The cabin of this brand new 2 month old aircraft was spic and span and the best part about flying this aircraft was, the windows were the cleanest I had ever seen on any ATR aicrafts that I had flown before this and as an Aviation Youtuber clean windows is what I always yearn for and if I find any marked or scratched window I literally ask for a tissue to clean it myself on the inside, just to signify how important it is.
The seat pocket had basic contents like a safety card and a buy on board booklet.I had'nt pre booked a meal nor intended to purchase anything so didn't bother to go through it.The legspace was ample and comfortable someone my height so all in all a good cabin with two very cordial crew who welcomed all the passengers with a genuine smile.
The boarding was complete and we departed out of IDR 10 minutes before schedule departure time so obviously I was expecting a before time arrival. We took off from RWY 25 and made a left turn towards north east ovee the Malwa Plateaus heading towards Bhopal (BHO) before finally turning towards Lucknow (LKO).
As we flew over BHO crusing at 15000 FT the seat belt signs were turned off and the crew began its inflight services of which I had'nt ordered none but thankfully IndiGo like other Indian airlines' serves complimentary water which is good.
As the sun started to go down with beautiful shade of dusk painting the sky orange we were already flying over the Bundelkhand plateau and Vindhya ranges (Mountain ranges of the central India) and soon I was flying over the ancient town of Khajuraho (HJR) which is a world heritage site famous for its Group of Monuments.Bundelkhand is actually my ancetral region and I've flown to Khajuraho a few times and Its always lovely to fly over your ancestral region and see its sheer raw beauty from the skies.
The river Ken which passes through the bundelkhand region and the Panna Tiger reserve nearby Khajuraho looks absolutely spectacular from 15000 FT.
Soon we entered airspace of my home state of Uttar Pradesh (U.P) as we flew over the towns of Mahoba and flew over the river Yamuna and the Captain of this flight, Mr Dayal came on the cabin mic to brief us about the arrival as we began our descent into my homebase with the dusky shade of orange giving way for the nightfall.
The Cabin crew prepared the cabin for landing however,I kept waiting for them to completely dim the lights of the cabin which they did'nt do or perhaps the ATRs have no complete cabin blackour option so I had to bare the reflection of the cabin on the window sort of obstructing the beautiful night view of my city Lucknow as we approached RWY 27 for landing.
We landed twenty minutes before time and it was a great flight with IndiGo especially the before time arrival,the clean windows and to have had opportunity to fly this brand new aircraft also possibly the first ever flight report onbaord this aircraft as well.
