Air travel experience in India ...

For work, had to travel to Mumbai for 2 days. It was an interesting trip, this being the first trip outside of Bangalore after R2I. So, got a chance to do first hand comparison of Bangalore and other metros and also get a feel for how travel has changed.


As far as airline travel is concerned, there is a definitely an ocean of change, compared to the so called 'flights' of Indian airlines!. I remember flying on Air India flight several years ago, which had bunch of mosquitoes within the flight! We even asked the flight hostess why that is the case, only to get a curt nod. Compared to that, current private airlines come very close to US airline companies - they are clean, neat, air hostess look professional. Tried Spice Jet on the way to Mumbai and IndiGo for return. Of course, just like the US counterparts, leg space is getting tighter and tighter, there is no free food/snacks anymore - not even a glass of juice or soda, which was very surprising. A soda can costs Rs. 50 and Juice bottle at Rs. 60! But, all of these guys say their motto is to keep flying costs down, which they do - one way ticket cost was Rs, 5000+(one day advance booking). However, the Indian bureaucratic system shows it's ugly face here as well - these airlines want to keep their timing and schedules but take off was delayed by an hour since runway was backed up in Mumbai, again proving the government run system can't keep up with the private sector, dragging them down along with them. 


Since all of the airlines can't come to the gate, passengers are ferried by buses to the Tarmac. There are so many busses running on the runway, some of which wait for a jet to pass, I am surprised that a bus hasn't run into a flight yet!. I did see the bus driver even honking while driving to the flight! While we reached Bangalore, we waited 30 mins to get our luggage on the carousel, again, departure of one of the flight on the runway was blocking the luggage cart reaching the terminal! After bit of angry bursting from passengers, cart driver was asked to take an alternative, longer route.