Anurag Jain's Blog on Bangalore Events, Travel, IIM Bangalore, IIM, IIMB, Management

Saturday, September 18, 2004

Posted 10:12 AM by Anurag

My Mumbai Trip: Part 2
New-Age of Indian Aviation: The Air Deccan Experience

On my mumbai trip mentioned in the last post, I booked tickets at the last minute (of course, I paid more than the Apex fares of other airlines!) and flew both ways by Air Deccan. Only later, I realized that they had started trunk-routes service, including Bangalore-Mumbai-Bangalore, on 25th August 2004 only! I must have been amongst their first few hundred customers on that route (I flew on 29th Aug and 31st Aug)! I had expected a small, turboprop, ATR plane. Instead, I found myself sitting in a brand-new, sparkling clean A-320 jet (registration # VT-ADZ). Apart from Air Deccan logo, the A-320 livery was adorned with huge logo of NDTV which almost made it look like belonging to NDTV rather than Air Deccan :) Advertising on planes is a real smart step Air Deccan has taken. I remember, earlier they had co-opted Sun and other IT companies for advertising on their ATR planes.

From a customer's perspective, the flights were different from Indian Airlines, Jet Airways, and Air Sahara only in the following aspects:
* No eatables are served free on-board. However, there's a small menu from which you can choose snacks. Range: 15-45 Rs.
* In-flight entertainment: There are small screens (maybe 8" !) every four seats in both sides of the seat columns. However, to listen to what's going on the the screen, you have to buy the earphone for 30 Rs :)
* Free Seating: No seat numbers are alloted. You can sit wherever you can find a seat. (Also called 'cattle-call' by some? Read that in NUTS.)

Despite of all these 'new' ways of flying, I had a good time with Air Deccan except for the last point mentioned. Because of Open Seating (or Free Seating), people were hurrying up, sometimes even stepping on other's toes (I mean literally, as in a cinema ticket queue) to be ahead in the boarding queue, in the shuttle bus, and in the final boarding at plane ladder! I didn't like that very much. Especially, because I always prefer a window seat ahead of the wings - sitting anywhere behind wings, they obstruct the magnificient view. :) I think they should do something about that..

1 comments

Comments:

It is nice to know the frills of no frill/low cost air line model from your first hand experience. It wont be far wherein v cld witness ppl sitting on top of the plane. :-) I feel governament has to play a significant role for low cost model to survive. One major concern is the high aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices. In India the prices of ATF is almost double that of international prices & domestic carries incurr around 15% higher unit costs, which negate the benifit of low cost model. Also we do not have a transparant aviation policies & lesser secondry airports to facilitate cheaper parking & landing fees.
However air deccans foray into low cost aviation with their aggressive pricing is promising. Also Dr. Vijay Mallayas entry under brand name King Fisher (KFA) into this will benifit travellers. In addition KFA's air hostess termed flying Models with micro mini skirts ;-) will definetly help the airline industry 2 prosper. Hope the low cost model will take off as southwest,Easyjet, Rynair did in the west. chandanv12@hotmail.com

# posted by

Anonymous : September 23, 2004 11:23 AM