Airliners-India.com Forum Index Airliners-India.com
Flickr Group & Facebook
 
 FAQFAQ   SearchSearch   MemberlistMemberlist   UsergroupsUsergroups   RegisterRegister 
 ProfileProfile   Log in to check your private messagesLog in to check your private messages   Log inLog in 

March to Jabalpur. Mar'14

 
Post new topic   Reply to topic    Airliners-India.com Forum Index -> Trip Reports
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
sumantra
Member


Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4685
Location: New Delhi

PostPosted: Fri Jul 17, 2015 12:17 am    Post subject: March to Jabalpur. Mar'14 Reply with quote

March to Jabalpur. Mar'14


http://www.airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic14407.html

85.1 Introduction: planning for the trip

My March to Jabalpur in the month of March started with some
serious planning. I usually patronise Air India on this route, to
try and catch up with a flight on an uncommon aircraft type in
India, the CRJ-700 `masked bandit'. The reason for my christening
of the aircraft type is the plane's look with the sharp nose,
and cockpit windows giving it the said appearance. As soon as I got the
Jabalpur invitation, I started looking for suitable dates in the window I
was offered. I usually try to opt for some relatively free
successive days, since Air India Regional/Alliance Air had
4-times weekly flights to the city. In one of my jaunts out of
Delhi in February, I noticed three bandits on the active tarmac.
The usual number was two, since with only four planes in its fleet,
the spares inventory rarely allows for more than two to be in
action at any given time, given issues with the engines in the type.
The planes in the fleet are, at the time of my trip (March
2014), VT-RJB, RJC, RJD and RJE. As I set about checking for
suitable flights, I noticed that much to my surprise, Air India
Regional had reduced services on this route from four per week,
to three. I guessed that it was due to some ATR-42s being returned
to the lessors, with one AT4 being positioned in Delhi, as usual.
This was `BO' the smelly plane, VT-ABO in the new Flying Swan livery.
These planes look nice from the outside, but are rather
run-down on the inside. In summary, I would book my onward leg,
on Air India Regional.

Getting back to the original planning, I noticed that I would not
be able to take an Air India flight back, even if I wanted to get
back the next day. The timing would otherwise have been excellent,
since Air India had an early morning flight to Jabalpur.
The only option would be to return to Delhi on the same
day, by an evening flight. I usually avoid this, since it is
quite strenuous. This would have to be on SpiceJet on a Q400, the
flight that did BOM-HBX-BOM-JLR-DEL in the evening. No, I do not
mind the Q400s one bit, they are an exotic type for me as well.
It would be my fourth Q400 flight. Yes, I would go in for one of
SpiceJet's buy-on-board sandwiches as well. I had to take
permission to fly an airline other from Air India. This took some
time to come in, and when it finally did, I booked my tickets quickly.
It was just as well that I did, since quite a few days
before the journey, I noticed this thrice-weekly flight
was completely sold out. SpiceJet also gets some excellent loads on
quite a few of its extremely innovative routes. The Q400 presents
an interesting aircraft, since it is a bit thirstier than the AT7.
It burns more fuel, but flies much faster than an AT7.
At one time, there were question marks raised on SpiceJet's decision
to go in for an aircraft type that no other operator in the
country went in for. There had been question marks regarding the
type based on its prior experience in North America. Even if that
were brushed away, would SpiceJet be able to squeeze in that
extra rotation per day, which would ensure a proper utilisation
of the faster but thirstier turboprop, over its competitor, the ATR-72?

From what I remember, Alliance Air was hived off from Indian
airlines during maverick CMD Sunil Arora's time, as a slimmer and
lower-cost unit with the B732s, which after their phase-out to
cargo roles and eventual retirement, saw the ATR-42s and
`bandits' join the fleet. The airline became `Air India Regional'
after the `merger' of Indian Airlines and Air India, and was a
fairly well-managed unit with a good network, and good yields,
in spite of operating on difficult sectors such as the North East.
The return of the ageing AT4 work-horses, plus the small size of the CR7 fleet,
brought with it a crying need to expand the fleet. People in the
know wanted a predominant ATR-72 fleet, with perhaps a few
ATR-42s, the latter to do unique routes such as KUU (Bhuntar, Kullu), IXP
(Pathankot), and PGH (Pantnagar), where if I remember correctly,
the ATR-42 is the only aircraft type which can manage the route.
Air India Regional was managing their aircraft relatively well,
with most of the AT4s being based at Calcutta, which was the
airline's mini-hub to the North East. The AT4s are not that
economical to operate except on very good load factors, for
smallish routes. The AT7s give much more economy, capacity and
fair range for medium and longer distance flights, such as those
about two hours in duration. The CR7 bandits are not very fuel
efficient for short hops, and do well with good loads and a fair
cargo load. Air India Regional has done very well to put them on
the longish routes (at the time of my trip: March 2014),
such as the DEL-BBI-IXZ (Delhi-Bhubaneshwar-Port Blair) route,
DEL-STV (Delhi-Surat), (Vadodara was cancelled),
and DEL-GAU (Delhi-Guwahati, which was also cancelled) -
incidentally, all routes on which it had been
announced that free food would be served. I had been looking
forward to flying these routes, since I knew that the Air India
Regional CR7s had ovens on board. The proof of the pudding is in the report,
57. B2B: Bandit 2 BBI & Back. Odissi Odyssey. May'13
http://www.airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic13530.html

There has been a crying need for Air India Regional to get more
aircraft, as the company was struggling to put aircraft to match
the demand. It was heartening to see the fleet planning finally
come up (albeit after a long delay) with the AT7 as the choice of
the aircraft for the next few years to come. However, the
acquisition had not started yet (March 2014),
and would possibly take a long time.
This would lead to decreasing market share, and would benefit
the only other player on these short hops to a lot of places, SpiceJet.
SpiceJet were making a killing on many routes where Air
India Regional could have almost minted money. In spite of having
to operate some routes under political pressure (such as Ludhiana
and Gwalior), Air India Regional was not doing too badly. The
Mumbai-Gwalior and Mumbai-Agra sector do get some loads (the
latter is quite reasonable to expect!), but for Ludhiana, I have
usually seen the flight cancelled. The obvious cause is lack of
loads, and passengers, if there are a few, they are possibly routed
through the very popular Air India Chandigarh flight (AI 864: DEL-IXC),
or one of the Amritsar flights, and then a chartered
bus takes them to Ludhiana.

There was also the small matter of SpiceJet's financial troubles.
SpiceJet was going through some rather tight financial stress in
February, and the signs were rather Kingfisher-like. There had
been a complete management overhaul as well, and here I was, with
two or three trips on SpiceJet planned for March itself.
Jabalpur, Surat, and Chandigarh. The second one got postponed, so
should I start looking forward to two Q400 flights, I wondered.
As usual, I asked my friends around, who could give me some reliable
information, from their sources. Forum members Ameya, Rishul and
my chatty friend from Bhopal Mr. J. R. R. Talking, assured me
that there was a very slim chance of the airline folding up that soon,
and the change in management could bring more stability to the airline.
Reassured, but somewhat put off by the un-imaginative buy-on-board choices,
I booked my return ticket on SpiceJet.

85.2 DEL-JLR on Air India Regional. Again

We boarded from bus gate 42B. Almost beside the gate was the
first Dream)liner manufactured for Air India at Paine Field,
VT-ANA, (ANnA, the `elder brother' plane) which was scheduled
to operate the morning flight AI 803 to Bengaluru. The itinerary
for this leg of the trip was as follows. The huge crowd at the
gate told me that we would have a full flight.

Set out 24 Mar (Mon) for Jabalpur from New Delhi
AI 9617: Air India Regional (CRJ-700) [Seat: 04F; PNR: YPH1N]
IGIA T3, New Delhi - Doomna Airport, Jabalpur
New Delhi (DEL) - Jabalpur (JLR)
[07:15 am - 08:35 am]

The loads were excellent, as I have written above. There was not
a single empty seat. Captain Prashant Sharma was in command, with
a lady First Officer whose name was not announced. Ms. Liu was in
charge of the cabin. We were in JC, the `Messiah' plane VT-RJC.
As I sat looking out of the window excitedly, WA the `wide aircraft'
VT-IWA, a beautiful Air India A332, taxied past, possibly as AI 439 to Chennai.
The niggles with the Dream)liner, coupled with
the heavier demand on this business hour Chennai flight, had made
Air India take this bigger-capacity plane on the route, which
also does quite a bit in terms of cargo loads. This was the
situation at the time of my trip, March 2014.

A few days back, this flight had been operated by a B77W, VT-ALN
`Jammu and Kashmir', such were the loads, passenger and cargo, both.
BO, the `smelly' plane VT-ABO, (an AT4) was parked at a remote
stand, nearby, possibly awaiting the first flight of the day, to
Dharamshala, a route which Air India Regional and SpiceJet
operated (circa March2014), and drew good revenue as well.
Our flight time was announced at 01:15 hours.

There wasn't much patronage of the buy-on-board service.
I appreciate pre-booking of buy-on-board food, since there is a
good chance that what I select in advance will be loaded on the flight.
The other advantage of the same is to have the
pre-payment on the ticket itself. For a change, I had managed to dunk
in a few biscuits and a glass of milk, before hurriedly setting
out for the airport. The buy-on-board on Air India Regional is
actually quite good, from what I hear from my colleagues, and
friends. The products are sourced from Cafe Coffee Day. The
coffee pre-mix with instant coffee powder, milk powder and sugar,
is actually quite good, in fact, almost too good for an instant coffee.
The sandwiches are also generally quite good.
However, I wasn't hungry.
Captain Sharma made a smooth landing. My hosts picked me up well
in time, and I was ready for a hectic day.

85.3 Phew, a same-day return back to Delhi

The busy day saw me get a breather for lunch, when I did not
allow my tummy to take a breather, as I simply piled on.
Another trip back to my place of work, and soon, I was in the small
Doomna airport at Jabalpur. I have often admired the small, old
but extremely well-maintained terminal building, which all said
and done, has not handled more than three flights a day for most
of the while. There were two Kingfisher flights, and one Air
India Regional one since 2011, when I first flew in there. Now,
there are two SpiceJet flights to/from the same destinations,
Mumbai and Delhi, and one Air India Regional flight, to/from Delhi.
The SpiceJet evening flight does BOM-HBX-BOM-JLR-DEL daily,
and prominent forum member and trip report writer Ameya
informed over a chat, that the flight was most likely on time.
I told him about my last SpiceJet trip (Chandigarh to Delhi),
exactly four days back, when there was an announcement on the
flight to the effect that The DGCA had declared SpiceJet to have
the best On-Time Performance (OTP) among all airlines in India,
in the last month's statistics release (February, 2014).
This bode well for the airline.

Getting back to the condition of the terminal, I have noticed a slight
amount of apathy towards cleanliness, and the terminal not being as
well-maintained as before. The arrivals part was a let down, and
the departures part had shown a bit of degradation as well. This was sad!

The itinerary for the return leg was the following:

Set out 24 Mar (Mon) for New Delhi from Jabalpur
SG 2452: SpiceJet (Q400) [Seat: 12D; PNR: P97GJT]
Doomna Airport, Jabalpur - IGIA T1-C, New Delhi
Jabalpur (JLR) - New Delhi (DEL)
[06:30 pm - 08:35 pm]

85.4 For you, Sir, `Kesar'. que cera cera

Our plane VT-SUF `Kesar' came in a few minutes before 6pm, and
stopped at the remote stand at 06:02 pm. SpiceJet pipelined the
arrivals and departures beautifully. The arrival and departures
halls are located side-by-side. As the plane had come in to land,
two air-conditioned SpiceJet buses went towards the plane, as did
a cargo vehicle. The first bus deposited its passengers at the
arrivals section, and drove up a few yards, to take in the
departures crowd. I boarded the bus at 06:10 pm. The entire
procedure went off extremely efficiently. Captain Sushil Launde
was in command in the front office, with First Officer Jaya Kumar.
There were two members of the cabin crew, with the
announcements being done by Ms. Kulwinder, while Ms. Hema was
making the flight safety demonstration.
I clicked a picture of the engine and the tall MLG in the evening light.


I recounted a conversation with Ameya, quite some time back, when
the first indications of trouble came in, for SpiceJet, with its
frequent schedule changes. I was having a conversation with him, on gchat.
He wrote, ``I have not flown SG since 2006 after a bad experience
of aborting landing at a very low level at Pune and have discouraged
everybody from flying SG owing to its pathetic rate of schedule changes.''
Not one to let a leg-pulling opportunity go past, I retorted,
``...you surely don't mean that the last-minute low-level landing
abort was due to the now-familiar SG last-minute schedule non-finalisation?''
SpiceJet aircraft then had the logo of the `Sun' group (owned
by the Marans) on the planes. I told Ameya that I have always
found VT-SPF a funny registration, the Marans' Sun group having a
`Sun Protection Factor' aircraft.
I was on VT-SUF, `Kesar' (`saffron', in English, and zAfrAn, in Urdu).
The costliest-ever spice, but a huge margin.

It was announced that the two languages the cabin
crew were fluent in, included Hindi and English. The overall
flight time was announced at 01:45 hours. We had a full flight,
with not a seat being empty. The wheels-up took place at 06:35 pm,
as we took off towards the West. The captain came on the air
announcing that we were flying at 24,000 feet, and kept the seat
belt sign on, since we were going through a few clouds. It was 07:05 pm.
As the reader may expect, I was getting hungrier by with every passing minute.
finally, Ms. Hema came in with my pre-booked snack. Here is a
picture of the impressive packing:

To whet up a passenger's appetite, it had a picture of some white
pepper-corns, with some fresh Coriander leaves in the background,
for effect, and a neat medley of colours.
Would I like some water to go with it? Sure.
Out of this impressive packing, came a tired-looking sandwich.

Chicken, with Mustard Mayonnaise. How fresh was it?
Now, one look at this sandwich will tell the reader that the term
`breaking bread' was not bred for this particular situation.
There was no date tag on the sandwich, but the visual impact of
the bread gave it away. One bite into the sandwich confirmed my
suspicions. It was not officially stale, but definitely not fresh.
I could not help it, since I was hungry.
On top of it, the food service had come in late, due to the
cloudy turbulence. I was hungry.
Not even Captain Launde's nice landing on Delhi's main runway 28,
could get my mind away from my disappointment on getting a bad sandwich.
As I was getting back home in a pre-paid taxi, I wondered what
was there to look forward to, in the next few days.
I had an official trip to France coming up in a few days' time,
for which I had to prepare well. This will be a 4-part trip report.
Stay tuned!
---
Links to my 85 trip reports:
https://sites.google.com/site/sumantratrip/
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
ameya
Member


Joined: 09 May 2007
Posts: 3671
Location: Pune,Maharashtra

PostPosted: Fri Jul 17, 2015 2:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nice TR, from the background to details of masked bandit and ATRs. As it stands today, the ATR72-600 would replace ATR42 on DEL-KUU, owning to powerful engines. Also from March 2014 to today, JLR seems to have grown leaps and bounds with SG now connecting it to BOM – DEL – HYD non stop and IXG, MAA,BLR one stop!

Sometimes I see the smaller AAI terminals extremely well maintained. It is more to do with the head of airport and how he manages his limited staff.

keenly looking forward to the four part trip report !
_________________
www.networkthoughts.com
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
sri_bom
Member


Joined: 22 Dec 2006
Posts: 2365
Location: Singapore

PostPosted: Fri Jul 17, 2015 3:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Great report Sumantra although one of the biggest disappointment for you has been the stale sandwich. I was quite surprised to note that the airline served such a pathetic looking sandwich in an attractive box I won’t be surprised if the cost of the box is more than the sandwich.

Just curious as a semi government employee do you need to take special permission when you fly private carriers?

Sri_Bom
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Yahoo Messenger MSN Messenger
sumantra
Member


Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4685
Location: New Delhi

PostPosted: Fri Jul 17, 2015 11:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ameya Sir, thank you for your encouragement, as always!
ameya wrote:
the ATR72-600 would replace ATR42 on DEL-KUU, owning to powerful engines. Also from March 2014 to today, JLR seems to have grown leaps and bounds with SG now connecting it to BOM – DEL – HYD non stop and IXG, MAA,BLR one stop!
Thank you for your updates and points on the WhatsApp group, on the former, and everyone on the WA group for the updates. The 65 inbound and55 outbound pax restriction for Bhuntar, Kulu was interesting. SG's recent move has actually got me thinking, after you mentioned that the route should do well. MAA and BLR sounds interesting, but nothign can beat Sambra, Belgaum (IXG). I have no clue as to the economics and connectivity, as compared to you. You would have had a chance to see the economics when DN/IT had flights connecting IXG.
ameya wrote:
Sometimes I see the smaller AAI terminals extremely well maintained. It is more to do with the head of airport and how he manages his limited staff.
Yes, Sir! On an average, the airport has a typical antiquated AAI airport look, but the maintenance and efficiency, is good, on an average. This is encouraging!

Srinivas: thank you for the kind words, and the encouragement! I always look forward to you reading my trip reports.
sri_bom wrote:
I won’t be surprised if the cost of the box is more than the sandwich.
Ha ha, good one, Sir!
sri_bom wrote:
Just curious as a semi government employee do you need to take special permission when you fly private carriers?
Yes Sir, always, without fail. When there is an invitation from a Govt/semi-Govt organisation, they have to ensure that the requisite permission has been taken. This ranges from connectivity issues (such as JLR, where Air India Regional does not have a daily flight), to timing constraints which would affect other Govt work. That being said, you may have noticed form my trip reports, that I have managed to fly almost all airlines in India, including 9W (where I have had enough miles to get redemption tickets quote often), 6E, G8 and SG, and among international airlines, BA, CX, CA, SK, U2, SU, AA, UA, CO, NW, DL...off the top of my head. I am trying my best to complete my trip reports backlog, after which I plan to cover trips prior to Sep'10, which was the point at which I started writing TRs.
Cheers, Sumantra.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
ameya
Member


Joined: 09 May 2007
Posts: 3671
Location: Pune,Maharashtra

PostPosted: Sat Jul 18, 2015 4:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The JLR-BOM-IXG connection is more of same flight number to a flight which anyways the same aircraft has to do rather than a analytical connection. Earlier it was HBX, now it is IXG.
_________________
www.networkthoughts.com
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
sumantra
Member


Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4685
Location: New Delhi

PostPosted: Sat Jul 18, 2015 9:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

ameya wrote:
The JLR-BOM-IXG connection is more of same flight number to a flight which anyways the same aircraft has to do rather than a analytical connection. Earlier it was HBX, now it is IXG.
Sir, I am quit surprised, since earlier, Vidyanagar, and then the Chu Ladni airport of Hubli-Dharwad, was the gateway to the world heritage sites at Hampi, and Pattadakal. Is HBX not getting passengers? I am curious!
Cheers, Sumantra.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
ameya
Member


Joined: 09 May 2007
Posts: 3671
Location: Pune,Maharashtra

PostPosted: Sun Jul 19, 2015 2:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

sumantra wrote:
ameya wrote:
The JLR-BOM-IXG connection is more of same flight number to a flight which anyways the same aircraft has to do rather than a analytical connection. Earlier it was HBX, now it is IXG.
Sir, I am quit surprised, since earlier, Vidyanagar, and then the Chu Ladni airport of Hubli-Dharwad, was the gateway to the world heritage sites at Hampi, and Pattadakal. Is HBX not getting passengers? I am curious!
Cheers, Sumantra.


Something to do with operations, SG pulled out after their HBX incident while OP does very well on the BLR HBX sector. Wonder if OP will be keen to extend HBX to BOM and operationalise BOM just for that one flight !

IXG on the other hand geographically caters to southern maharashtra and northern karnataka both. If keeping two or three stations operational ever makes sense, the best is to having a morning flight to belgaum and evening one from Hubli or vice versa from BLR and from Mumbai, one to Kolhapur and another to belgaum - that will cover a lot of area and should attract passengers
_________________
www.networkthoughts.com
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
sumantra
Member


Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4685
Location: New Delhi

PostPosted: Sun Jul 19, 2015 3:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

ameya wrote:
Something to do with operations, SG pulled out after their HBX incident while OP does very well on the BLR HBX sector. Wonder if OP will be keen to extend HBX to BOM and operationalise BOM just for that one flight!
That is interesting, Sir. HBX's main connectivity needs to be both to BLR and BOM. That was one of the things Kingfisher had on the spot, with the BLR-HBX-BOM and vice versa flights. You may remember my frantic requests for help, when IT was in dire straits in 2011 (and so was I, since I had booked two crucial flights on IT: IR 2122 and IT 2121, which finally settled at the following schedule:
Set out 14 Dec (Wed) for Hubli from Mumbai
IT 2121: Kingfisher (Red) (ATR)
[Seats: 04F, 03F, 03D; PNR: JMJPWO, NPANYC, MRTYFZ]
CSIA T1, Mumbai - Chu Ladni Airport, Hubli-Dharwad
Mumbai (BOM) - Hubli (HBX)
[06:25 pm - 07:50 pm]

IT 2122: Kingfisher (Red) (ATR)
[Seats: 12A, 11A, 11C; PNR: JMJPWO, NPANYC, MRTYFZ]
Chu Ladni Airport, Hubli-Dharwad - CSIA T1, Mumbai
Hubli (HBX) - Mumbai (BOM)
[08:15 pm - 09:45 pm]

It was a family trip,
Hampi Hamper, Part I: Banashankari, Badami, Pattadakal, Aihole
http://www.airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic12623.html
Hampi Hamper, Part 2: Hampi!
http://www.airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic12661.html

ameya wrote:
IXG on the other hand, geographically caters to southern maharashtra and northern karnataka both. If keeping two or three stations operational ever makes sense, the best is to having a morning flight to belgaum and evening one from Hubli or vice versa from BLR and from Mumbai, one to Kolhapur and another to belgaum - that will cover a lot of area and should attract passengers

This sounds extremely interesting to me!
Sir, I request you not to lose interest in this thread (though we are going off-topic a bit), and kindly give us some perspectives on Kingfisher's operations to both Sambra, Belgaum and Ujlaiwadi, Kolhapur. I remember you pointing out a political connection with the latter, at least, in conjunction with a discussion on a few airports in Maharashtra.
Belgaum has a special sweet memory for me. Literally, as well.
(kunda, and manDige). I had a Belgaum trip as a Mumbaikar in 2003, going by train, and coming back by a Konduskar sleeper bus. Lovely place: `Bangalore minus the pollen'. It is also possibly infamous for the smuggling mafia. Sir, can you give some more details of the Kingfisher-era operations to Belgaum and Kolhapur?

I remember the Kolhapur flight as (circa 2011, before it was stopped for good)
IT 4113: Kingfisher (Red) Airlines (ATR-72) [Seat: , PNR: ]
CSIA T1, Mumbai - Kolhapur (Ujlaiwadi) Airport
Mumbai (BOM) - Kolhapur (KLH)
[10:00 am - 11:10 am]

IT 4114: Kingfisher (Red) Airlines (ATR-72) [Seat: , PNR: ]
Kolhapur (Ujlaiwadi) Airport - CSIA T1, Mumbai
Kolhapur (KLH) - Mumbai (BOM)
[11:35 am - 12:40 pm]

Thanks once again, Sumantra.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
jbalonso777
Member


Joined: 05 Jul 2012
Posts: 1501
Location: Never, never land

PostPosted: Mon Jul 20, 2015 10:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sumantra sir, another great one from you!

Wow, the background of CD - I never knew all that to be honest, thanks so much for sharing! Very Happy

Fairly reasonable set of flights on the props I guess, the sandwich does look very tired! All of a sudden there's a sudden air of Q400 TRs on this forum! Haha

Great, looking forward to the (presumably!) Boeing 787 flights to CDG! : D

Regards
Jish
_________________
http://www.youtube.com/c/JishnuBasu777
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
sumantra
Member


Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4685
Location: New Delhi

PostPosted: Mon Jul 20, 2015 11:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I was waiting for your read Sir, thank you!
jbalonso777 wrote:
All of a sudden there's a sudden air of Q400 TRs on this forum! Haha
In my case, it is more of the turbulence wake from last year Razz
jbalonso777 wrote:
Great, looking forward to the (presumably!) Boeing 787 flights to CDG!
Thank you Sir, I am working on it right now. I hope to put up some decade-old pics as well, of my first trip through CDG, both ways. Yes, the famous AI 191/144 set of flights, then on the B744s. AI's only money-spinner during the dark years.
Cheers, Sumantra.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
stealthpilot
Member


Joined: 19 Dec 2006
Posts: 2325
Location: BLR, DXB

PostPosted: Sun Aug 09, 2015 3:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

- another masked bandit flight, nice.
- only 2 out of 4 generally flying Shocked
- Any idea whether the AI Regional staff get the same pay and benefits?
- Did you preorder a meal on the way down, or was it just coffee?

- looking forward to the France trip Smile
_________________
eP007
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
sumantra
Member


Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4685
Location: New Delhi

PostPosted: Sun Aug 09, 2015 7:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

stealthpilot wrote:
- another masked bandit flight, nice.

Thank you stealthpilot! I appreciate you catching up with each and every trip report you have missed out on reading, and reading them in detail as well!
stealthpilot wrote:
- only 2 out of 4 generally flying

At the time of writing, it is possibly three, with one based in Mumbai, as Ameya guessed. Two at DEL, from what both of us could deduce from the schedules, with low utilisation. The hardware is plagued with engine issues, and one is usually seen in the DEL hangars close to the erstwhile T1-B. The sub-fleet is too small to have a very large spares inventory. I guess AI got these CR7s at a good lease deal, since this type is not popular in Asia, as Ameya pointed out in a conversation. The other issues are with the crew. Again, too small a cache to operate on a type not favoured in the entire continent.
stealthpilot wrote:
- Any idea whether the AI Regional staff get the same pay and benefits?
No idea...
stealthpilot wrote:
- Did you preorder a meal on the way down, or was it just coffee?
Unfortunately, the AI website does not allow a pre-order. The BoB experience was that of a few colleagues. They do not market this BoB well! I will possibly fly a masked bandit again this Friday, and check out the pre-order option, in case the website finally has it. I doubt it, though.
stealthpilot wrote:
- looking forward to the France trip Smile
Thank you: I need to take some time out to sort the pictures. I seem to have a damaged directory which had some pictures corresponding to two 2014 TRs, on my hard disk. I may end up with at least one TR without pictures Sad
Thank you, once again, Sumantra.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic    Airliners-India.com Forum Index -> Trip Reports All times are GMT + 5.5 Hours
Page 1 of 1

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum


Powered by phpBB © phpBB Group. Hosted by phpBB.BizHat.com