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Air Asia India MAA-BLR (65 pics)

 
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Spiderguy252
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 05, 2014 6:11 pm    Post subject: Air Asia India MAA-BLR (65 pics) Reply with quote

Very short hop that I did in early July, but work swamped me and I couldn't get around to Instagramming the pics and compiling the write-up. Here it is now:



The I5 website is rather nifty, linked to its parent brand but any attempts to login with my registered username and password to manage my booking failed - something they're yet to sort out at their backend I suppose.



Picking up a sandwich; I needed to head to work on the Monday morning right after I landed, so this helped until lunchtime.



A seat on the last row was what I picked out. No charge.



And thus was the fare. This was at the start of their giant discount, and some folks even walked away with fares of Rs. 699/- (without the meal, obviously) in the early hours.



Confirmation.



The morning before the trip though, on Sunday - Rishul (me111993) and I caught some planes from St. Thomas Mount, pretty fun. The first of the below shots is from his lens, a MAS Kargo 332F.



IWB coming in from SIN.



A UL 343 in (and then out an hour later) from and to CMB. Very slow climb-out, as you would expect.



An Air Costa Embraer ERJ-170LR, VT-LNR.



----------------

The next morning at MAA airport. Waking up at 4:45 was not my idea of fun.



The parking space below. Bit tiny.



From the exterior of the terminal.



Check-in was very rudimentary for this new flight- no computers involved. The two agents merely ticked off my name off of a register and handed me a pre-printed boarding card, and a baggage tag.



Interior of the terminal. Don't be fooloed - MAA looks good only on the surface, but unlike the rest it's the same old swamp it used to be beneath the icing. Perhaps the pictures don't show it.



Art.



FIDS.



Security was a long line, after which I had 20 or so minutes to kill near the boarding gates.

A 9W 738 being decked off prior to its flight to DEL.



The seating near the gates.



A 6E 320 being prepped for its hop to HYD.



My Air Asia bird - VT-ATF coming in. This was to be its first run of the day so I suppose it was brought in from an overnight parking spot or such.



Branding right next to its jetway, conveniently.



Plonking the aerobridge to L1.



You'd probably mistake it for a regular Air Asia bird, bar the presence of the Indian flag near the nose.



Walking right up to the back.



A 9W 738 - VT-JFL portside. It's the same one that's heading to DEL as shot earlier.



The price blast ensured that travellers could bag a seat on this sector for peanuts, but that didn't mean the a/c flew full. I had the row to myself, surprisingly.



JFL pushing back.



A 6E 320 coming in.



An SG 738 powering itself up to Runway 7 - VT-SEJ.



Likewise, another 6E - IFI, this one with sharklets. More and more airports in the country seem to be bustling with predominantly 6E traffic these days, overall all the other competitors.



Seatbacks.



Some Skytrax fluff. Should reminisce on how that worked out for Kingfisher.



In-flight magazines and menus.



We pushed out a good quarter of an hour early - good signs for me as I could reach (and finish) Monday morning's quota of work earlier.



Safety briefings.



Tucked in.



An SG Q400 zipping out.



CX Cargo 744. Always fun to catch an endangered 747.



A view of the terminal. A Kuwait Airways A310 was the sole international presence, at the far side.



A WY 737 waltzing by us in pursuit of the entrance to the runway. A4O-BJ.



A QR freighter at the same spot where the MAS Kargo was the previous morning.



A 6E 320 was close behind, this one without sharklets. IEZ.



Moving into the runway.



Lift-off.



The international terminal.



Sighting MAA.



Cruising altitude was likely a little on the lower side today, as the female FO explained earlier. Something to the tune of 24,000 feet.



The sandwich. Bit bulky, but who's complaining.





Descent started 20 minutes after getting up in the air.



Piercing through overcast clouds hovering over Karnataka.





Descent into the outskirts of BLR.



Some fields and a National/State highway.



Touchdown.



Clearing the runway.



A remote stand is the order of the day for our flight this morning, which meant that we took a turn to the right, away from the terminal.



The ATC.



An SG 739ER - VT-SGC...



...and a 9W Konnect ATR tucked alongside.



Which was pushing back anyway.



De-boarding.





Exiting BLR to catch a ride back to the city.



Quite uneventful bar the experience of flying a brand new airline and aircraft, though I'd have loved to be on the aircraft's next hop - to GOI! Wink

Hope you enjoyed the read.

Cheers,
Varun
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Last edited by Spiderguy252 on Wed Aug 06, 2014 12:29 am; edited 1 time in total
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Spiderguy252
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 05, 2014 9:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Also read on A.net at: http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/trip_reports/read.main/255933/
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Nimish
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 05, 2014 9:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Lovely pictures - thanks for posting. Kind of sad that they weren't full even with the throwaway pricing - I wonder if that's a sign of things to come?
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The_Goat
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 05, 2014 10:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for the TR, Spiderguy. Got to check out Air Asia the next time I'm home.

Nimish wrote:
Lovely pictures - thanks for posting. Kind of sad that they weren't full even with the throwaway pricing - I wonder if that's a sign of things to come?


I think things will get a lot worse for airlines once the proposed 200kmph+ rail corridor becomes operational between the two cities. The idea is to introduce non-stop high speed trains that can do MAA-BLR in three hours flat!
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ameya
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 06, 2014 12:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nice TR !

The picture of WY - noticed the ground handling equipment's of what looks like those of AI. Why is scrap lying all over !
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justbala
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 06, 2014 9:14 pm    Post subject: Re: Air Asia India MAA-BLR (65 pics) Reply with quote

Nice pics Varun. Did you have an all male cabin crew onboard?

VT-ATF is based out of BLR. So your bird just did a morning trip from BLR and now returning. The a/c does BLR-MAA-BLR-COK-BLR-GOI-BLR-MAA-BLR.
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star*gold
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 07, 2014 1:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yeah, with higher speed rail travel or with even better roads, airlines will find it harder to compete.

Looks like he had to wake up at 4:45 to start his day and probably ended up in his final destination within Bengaluru 9-9:30 am?

Let’s say one left Chennai around 5am, right now one can get to Bengaluru around 10am by road? This mode is probably more tiring.
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Spiderguy252
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 08, 2014 4:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks, all.

The_Goat wrote:
I think things will get a lot worse for airlines once the proposed 200kmph+ rail corridor becomes operational between the two cities. The idea is to introduce non-stop high speed trains that can do MAA-BLR in three hours flat!


The fastest train on the current line isn't too bad - it's the Shatabdi that does SBC-MAS without a single halt and takes 4h50.

ameya wrote:
Nice TR !

The picture of WY - noticed the ground handling equipment's of what looks like those of AI. Why is scrap lying all over !


It's a common scene at MAA, has been for a while.

justbala wrote:
Nice pics Varun. Did you have an all male cabin crew onboard?


Yep, except the FO.

justbala wrote:
VT-ATF is based out of BLR. So your bird just did a morning trip from BLR and now returning. The a/c does BLR-MAA-BLR-COK-BLR-GOI-BLR-MAA-BLR.


Thanks for the intel, but I doubt the COK tag was present as of the start of July - when I took this flight. Though the a/c may have been based in BLR anyway.
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The_Goat
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 08, 2014 5:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Spiderguy252 wrote:
Thanks, all.


The fastest train on the current line isn't too bad - it's the Shatabdi that does SBC-MAS without a single halt and takes 4h50.



It used to make a scheduled halt either at Katpadi or Jolarpettai, don't remember which one.

That was many years ago, though.
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Spiderguy252
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 08, 2014 5:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The_Goat wrote:
Spiderguy252 wrote:
Thanks, all.


The fastest train on the current line isn't too bad - it's the Shatabdi that does SBC-MAS without a single halt and takes 4h50.



It used to make a scheduled halt either at Katpadi or Jolarpettai, don't remember which one.

That was many years ago, though.


That one still exists - two stops, one at Katpadi and another at Bangalore Cantt.

The Mysore Shatabdi is another one, and it is direct between MAS and SBC, and then onwards to Mysore (and the same in reverse).
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me111993
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PostPosted: Sun Aug 10, 2014 10:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Lovely report Varun, nice pics too!

Quote:
The I5 website is rather nifty, linked to its parent brand but any attempts to login with my registered username and password to manage my booking failed - something they're yet to sort out at their backend I suppose.


oh yes, lots of issues with the I5 website, similar problems, i faced.

Quote:
The morning before the trip though, on Sunday - Rishul (me111993) and I caught some planes from St. Thomas Mount, pretty fun.


oh yes. Smile

Quote:
Interior of the terminal. Don't be fooloed - MAA looks good only on the surface, but unlike the rest it's the same old swamp it used to be beneath the icing. Perhaps the pictures don't show it.


totally. and after flying out of airports like BLR and HYD, its almost a rude shock how average the terminal is.

How was the sandwich?

Quote:
Quite uneventful bar the experience of flying a brand new airline and aircraft


haha.

thanks a lot for sharing Varun.
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jbalonso777
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 11, 2014 1:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Varun, great TR and nice pictures to compliment it!

I really hope I5 do well - throwaway ticket prices and still not a full flight is not an ideal thing to happen, IMO.
How was the sandwich? Really curios to know Razz
I hope they sell hot meals on the longer flights, then I guess the foodies (like me Razz ) would certainly have I5 on top of the list, above any other Indian LCC!

Looking forward to more from you - SG/6E is next, IIRC..?

Regards
Jish
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Spiderguy252
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 12, 2014 5:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

jbalonso777 wrote:
How was the sandwich? Really curios to know Razz


me111993 wrote:
How was the sandwich?


Very good!

jbalonso777 wrote:
Looking forward to more from you - SG/6E is next, IIRC..?


Likely 6E on HYD-DEL, and then SG back on DEL-BLR (Sep 14 and Sep 21) respectively. Those are too generic, so I might just do a WaTR of sorts.
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sri_bom
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 13, 2014 1:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thank you for posting the report and some excellent pictures specially from St. Thomas Mount. It would be interesting to see how long they sustain certain routes as Air Asia is notorious in launching new routes only to pull out of it after a few months.
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stealthpilot
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 21, 2014 1:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Great set of pics and TR ...... hopefully well get some TRs with those planes full!
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sumantra
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 09, 2014 3:46 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for a lovely TR Varun, I finally got around to reading this one.
LCCs rely heavily on the web for bookings: I hope I5 get this website part right, soon. Having registered users works well both ways: for the customer, in hastening the booking experience with pre-filled fields, and for the airline, in having contact information in place, for advertising new products, and announcements.
Great spotting from you and Rishul on St. Thomas Mount! KCM used to spot from there: did you get to meet him, and the other MAA spotters, by any chance?
Nice pictures from MAA...and the sandwich looks nice. How would you rate I5 food vis-a-vis the cold food on 6E, the (new Taj-SATS/CCD) SG offerings, and the G8 ones, all of them being notorious for keeping stale food on board?
Thanks for sharing this with us!
Cheers, Sumantra.
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Spiderguy252
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 09, 2014 5:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

sumantra wrote:
LCCs rely heavily on the web for bookings: I hope I5 get this website part right, soon. Having registered users works well both ways: for the customer, in hastening the booking experience with pre-filled fields, and for the airline, in having contact information in place, for advertising new products, and announcements.


Just got a mail yesterday sending a fresh activation link, so they seem to have sorted it out for now.

sumantra wrote:
Great spotting from you and Rishul on St. Thomas Mount! KCM used to spot from there: did you get to meet him, and the other MAA spotters, by any chance?


Unfortunately not. Sad

sumantra wrote:
Nice pictures from MAA...and the sandwich looks nice. How would you rate I5 food vis-a-vis the cold food on 6E, the (new Taj-SATS/CCD) SG offerings, and the G8 ones, all of them being notorious for keeping stale food on board?


I'm trying both 6E and SG coming Sunday (and the one after that) in that order, and will be better positioned to make a call on that one after that. Smile

Thanks for reading!
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