Here's my report of a couple of routine India domestic flights featuring national carrier Air India's brand new A320neo and market leader IndiGo's workhorse A320, taken on the same day.
Air India 430
Chennai [MAA/VOMM] - New Delhi [DEL/VIDP]
March 25th, 2018
STD: 9:55 AM
STA: 12:55 PM
Actual flight time: 2 hours 31 minutes
The rotation AI439/AI430 was the very first rotation AI put its neos on. This rotation often sees widebodies like the B788s and B77Ws (and a couple of times in the last few years, the elusive B744s) operating, sometimes even clubbed together with a similar-timed Bangalore or Hyderabad flight, and rarely one of the few surviving doble-bogey A320s. Fortunately or unfortunately, today's flight was operated by VT-CIF, one of the newer A320neos leased to the airline.
I had to check in at the counter, as AI strangely doesn't offer kiosk check in at MAA. Security was a breeze, and just past security was VT-CIF at gate 1.
VT-CIF - Air India A320-251N (c/n 7638) at Chennai [MAA/VOMM] by ChennaiPlaneSpotter, on Flickr
Settled in to my window seat (forgot the seat number).
AIATSL TLD JET-16 tug at Chennai [MAA/VOMM] by ChennaiPlaneSpotter, on Flickr
VT-SLB, arriving from Goa and Mumbai as SG611.
VT-SLB - SpiceJet B737-7GL (c/n 34760) at Chennai [MAA/VOMM] by ChennaiPlaneSpotter, on Flickr
TC-TJO (wet leased to SpiceJet), operating SG501 from Ahmedabad.
TC-TJO - Corendon Airlines B737-86N (c/n 34253) at Chennai [MAA/VOMM] by ChennaiPlaneSpotter, on Flickr
A complete overview of the terminal side of the apron.
Chennai [MAA/VOMM] by ChennaiPlaneSpotter, on Flickr
We taxied to Runway 07.
9W466 to Mumbai.
VT-JFG - Jet Airways B737-8AL (c/n 39057) at Chennai [MAA/VOMM] by ChennaiPlaneSpotter, on Flickr
UL129 from Colombo.
4R-MRD - SriLankan Airlines A321-231 (c/n 1946) at Chennai [MAA/VOMM] by ChennaiPlaneSpotter, on Flickr
Nice to see all four of MAA's ATR operators parked side-by-side.
9I559 from Vijayawada.
VT-RKF - Alliance Air ATR72-212A(600) (c/n 1427) at Chennai [MAA/VOMM] by ChennaiPlaneSpotter, on Flickr
6E7101 from Mangalore.
VT-IYC - IndiGo ATR72-212A(600) (c/n 1470) at Chennai [MAA/VOMM] by ChennaiPlaneSpotter, on Flickr
9W405 to Madurai.
VT-JCU - Jet Airways ATR72-212A(500) (c/n 928) at Chennai [MAA/VOMM] by ChennaiPlaneSpotter, on Flickr
2T431 to Salem (inaugural flight, under the Government's UDAN scheme).
VT-TMU - TruJet ATR72-212A(500) (c/n 949) at Chennai [MAA/VOMM] by ChennaiPlaneSpotter, on Flickr
The cargo aircraft were parked opposite the int'l terminal instead of their usual bays at the other end of the runway in lieu of the impending arrival of the German President.
9V-SFP.
9V-SFP - Singapore Airlines Cargo B747-412F(SCD) (c/n 32902) at Chennai [MAA/VOMM] by ChennaiPlaneSpotter, on Flickr
VT-BDB.
VT-BDB - Blue Dart B757-23N(PCF) (c/n 27974) at Chennai [MAA/VOMM] by ChennaiPlaneSpotter, on Flickr
India's international national carrier
A6-ENE - Emirates B777-31H(ER) (c/n 35603) at Chennai [MAA/VOMM] by ChennaiPlaneSpotter, on Flickr
Takeoff was on time and we turned left for a northerly heading to Delhi.
After about half an hour, a hot snack was served. Since mid-2016 IIRC AI has switched to all-vegetarian snacks on domestic flights. However, it was extremely tasty (and hot, not cold!). The snack consisted of two cutlets with kurma, a small sandwich with tomato paste inside, and a couple of sweets, served with a water bottle.
After the meal, I dozed off since there was nothing better to do (no WiFi, no IFE
).Eventually we were on final approach for Delhi's Runway 29, about 30 minutes ahead of schedule.
RQ15 from Kabul.
YA-KMD - Kam Air MD83 (c/n 49785) at Delhi [DEL/VIDP] by ChennaiPlaneSpotter, on Flickr
Disembarked into Delhi's marvelous T3.
AI543 from Hyderabad.
VT-CIG - Air India A320-251N (c/n 7800) at Delhi [DEL/VIDP] by ChennaiPlaneSpotter, on Flickr
BWFS/Jet Airways Volvo shuttle bus at Delhi [DEL/VIDP] by ChennaiPlaneSpotter, on Flickr
Alliance Air at Delhi [DEL/VIDP] by ChennaiPlaneSpotter, on Flickr
I5798 to Goa.
VT-SXR - AirAsia India A320-214 (c/n 4562) at Delhi [DEL/VIDP] by ChennaiPlaneSpotter, on Flickr
UK882 from Cochin.
VT-TNH - Vistara A320-251N (c/n 7980) at Delhi [DEL/VIDP] by ChennaiPlaneSpotter, on Flickr
CI5637 from Taipei.
B-18709 - China Airlines Cargo B747-409(F) (c/n 30766) at Delhi [DEL/VIDP] by ChennaiPlaneSpotter, on Flickr
UK993 to Mumbai.
VT-TNI - Vistara A320-251N (c/n 8099) at Delhi [DEL/VIDP] by ChennaiPlaneSpotter, on Flickr
AI243 to Kabul.
VT-EXB - Air India A320-214 (c/n 6690) at Delhi [DEL/VIDP] by ChennaiPlaneSpotter, on Flickr
9W964 to Kolkata.
VT-JBY - Jet Airways B737-96N(ER) (c/n 35227) at Delhi [DEL/VIDP] by ChennaiPlaneSpotter, on Flickr
9W307 from Mumbai.
VT-JGC - Jet Airways B737-95R (c/n 30412) at Delhi [DEL/VIDP] by ChennaiPlaneSpotter, on Flickr
Left the airport, took the metro out, and arrived at T2 a few hours late for my return flight.
IndiGo 2162
New Delhi [DEL/VIDP] - Chennai [MAA/VOMM]
March 25th, 2018
STD: 8:35 PM
STA: 11:30 PM
Actual flight time: 2 hours 22 minutes
IndiGo, along with fellow LCC SpiceJet, was partially shifting operations from T1D to T2 from this day, in lieu of expansion work at T1D. Go Air, another LCC, had shifted a few months prior.
T2 has a total of 16 boarding gates, numbered 20-35, of which 24-31 are bus gates on the ground floor and the rest are aerobridges on the first floor. SpiceJet with the least operations seemed to be using only the bus gates, but I was there only for a couple of hours.
The 8 bus gates with seating are in a 50 meter by 20 meter space, making it an extremely cramped version of T1D. The first floor is relatively more spacious, but the 10 foot ceilings can make it feel pretty claustrophobic. There are about 10-15 shops and 10 food outlets.
The main issue is the crowds. T2 is definitely processing more people than it can handle, and that was very much evident. Several people were struggling to find seats and charging ports. Since DEL is silent, airline staff were running around with portable mics and speakers announcing final boarding calls and directing passengers.
Overall though, 6E and G8 seemed to be coping just fine, barring a couple of delays. SG just had a couple of flights when I was there. But let's hope this arrangement ends as quickly as possible - this is eons from T3, or even T1D.
Check-in area.
Food court with low ceilings (extremely crowded).
Ground floor bus gates (at least the higher ceilings gave some breathing room). Just visualise two of those gates boarding simultaneously.
Boarding was from gate 23, on time.
G8713 to Ahmedabad.
VT-WGK - Go Air A320-271N (c/n 7753) at Delhi [DEL/VIDP] by ChennaiPlaneSpotter, on Flickr
OD206 to Kuala Lumpur.
9M-LCK - Batik Air Malaysia B737-8GP (c/n 38318) at Delhi [DEL/VIDP] by ChennaiPlaneSpotter, on Flickr
Takeoff was on time, from Runway 28. We turned left immediately after takeoff.
Being an LCC, a free water round was conducted after which a buy on board service started. I bought nothing and dozed off, waking up about 30 minutes from Chennai.
We landed on Runway 07 at Chennai, and taxied to the cargo bay (this aircraft overnighted at Chennai, so it was put up here). And guess who was by our side, having come in, incidentally from DEL, earlier that evening
16+01 - German Air Force A340-313 (c/n 274) at Chennai [MAA/VOMM] by ChennaiPlaneSpotter, on Flickr
A fitting end to a fine day of travel!
We were bussed to arrivals, which took about 15 minutes (as I had mentioned, the cargo bay is at one end of the runway). Having no checked bags, I was out in a couple of minutes.
Hope you enjoyed this report! As always, comments and criticism are welcome, and please do check out my Flickr page!
Previous trip report:
Spotting at BLR + Jet Airways BLR-MAA, October 2017
