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Revival: Air India Express from Thiruvananthapuram to Kochi

 
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Theairplaneguy4ever
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Joined: 26 Sep 2012
Posts: 191
Location: Kochi, Kerala, India

PostPosted: Sat Oct 04, 2014 7:07 pm    Post subject: Revival: Air India Express from Thiruvananthapuram to Kochi Reply with quote



Thanks to forum members sumantra and spiderguy252,for suggesting doing a written TR on this flight. Note that this flight was flown 2.5 years ago in 2012.

This trip report cannot start without introducing my very good friend and fellow aviation enthusiast who accompanied me. We shall call him AD.

One early Saturday afternoon, I called AD up and the following conversation took place.

“Hey, would you like to go someplace over the next few days? ”
“Sure, where to? “ , asks AD.
“How about flying out someplace nearby “, I quite slyly drop.
Usually, a trip meant calling a few other friends and going to watch a movie or perhaps going somewhere to eat out. Flying had never quite been on the table.
“Sound okay to me, where do you say we fly to?”, AD asks.


Immediately plans were made to fix a destination. Could it be Bangalore? Or perhaps Kozhikode airport ? Or maybe even Trivandrum?

Bangalore seemed like a waste as a simple daytrip would not do justice to the city, Kozhikode meant getting downtown an incredible pain, with the whole airport being in an entirely different district. That leaves Trivandrum, with the airport conveniently located right in the centre of town.

But how to get there? There were a great deal of options – Indigo’s 6E 315/316 MAA-TRV-COK-DEL and back flight, Air India’s AI466/467 DEL-COK-TRV flight along with AI956 RUH-TRV-COK, on a 777-300ER which no longer exists, and little Alliance Air’s Kerala connector, COK-TRV-CCJ-COK, which sadly doesn’t exist as well. In fact, at this time I believe the COK-TRV leg was one of the few if not only sector to be operated by all three of Air India Limited’s subsidiaries. Which bring us to the final airline, Air India Express – which had two flights on the COK-TRV-COK leg, one was a redeye which we didn’t fancy, leaving IX481/482, TRV-COK-DMM & back.

This afternoon flight was undoubtedly the most convenient. We decided to pick IX481 on the TRV-COK leg and head to TRV by train, the 4 hour ride being one of AD & I’s favorite routes.

So I booked the flights that Saturday evening for a Monday afternoon flight. Yes, Monday – just two days away. The fare was an incredibly cheap 1200 INR. AD would head to the railway station next day to get us some rail tickets on the 5:30 early morning Intercity express from Ernakulam Junction to Trivandrum Central, with the assurance of getting reserved seats.

He calls me up the next day saying that he couldn’t get reservations.

We would instead be fighting alongside our fellow countrymen on the notoriously crowded sector of COK-TRV.

30th April, 2012 - Platform 3, Ernakulam Junction

This trip finally begins, here, at the bustling Ernakulam Junction, where nobody seems to require any sleep at 5:00 am. But that is the general case at any Indian railway station, people who seem perpetually lacking fatigue and so full of energy.

My dad has dropped me off here, while AD simply has had to walk from his house which is remarkably close. He is already seated and has saved me a place as well. We talk about how lucky we were to get seats despite not getting any reservations the previous day and express relief. The young lady next to us, who happens to hear our conversation, gives us the following enlightenment:

“Er, excuse me, this is the reserved coach”.

Panic! Panic! The run begins to find empty seats, thankfully we end up finding two before running all the way to Trivandrum.

AD has this astonishing gift of being able to make conversation with anyone. Along the way we get to talk to a few nice people. Well, AD did most of the talking; I merely stared out of the window and pretended to listen. Sorry, I am not a people person unfortunately. The stations come and go – the seaside journey along Cherthala and Alappuzha, the crisscrossing backwaters along the Harripad-Kollam stretch where there seems to be a bridge every kilometer and the final stretch to Trivandrum, which honestly is the dullest.

We were scheduled to pull in at Central at 10:00, but this is the Indian railways, who am I kidding – we arrive at 10:40am instead; it wouldn’t be of concern as our plane wasn’t scheduled to leave until 3:00pm. We pass by Trivandrum Kochuveli station, which is right next to the airport, it would have been much more convenient to get off here but the train doesn’t have a halt.

At Central, we decide to have breakfast.. and lunch as well because we didn’t eat until getting back all the way to Kochi. The Indian coffee house opposite the station, which is a TVM icon because it is built like a spiral, is where we get some porrotas and curry. Can’t say the food was any good but what do you expect for prices that were dirt cheap.

After filling up our tummies, we catch an auto from the prepaid auto stand at Trivandrum Central to the airport covering 7 km, for a fare of 50 INR. Think about that – 50 INR, the same distance now you’ll probably have to pay something in excess of 120 INR.

As we enter the premise of the ‘swanky’ (seriously, what is up with the Indian population when it comes to this word and airports) new international terminal. Awe struck by the sight, we tell the auto driver to let us off at the entry road and walk the rest of the way.

IX481 Trivandrum to Kochi

List of video trip reports

This is one of my first video trip reports and it's a very hastily and shabbily done one. You'll have to excuse me on the quality.

Air India Express IX481 : Flying from Thiruvananthapuram to Kochi

Here's AD's much better trip report from his perspective. I tried to get him to post more trip reports from his newer flights but he's quite busy nowadays.

Trip report-Air India Express : Thiruvananthapuram-Kochi





The CISF agent lets us in after a thorough inspection of our documents. However, to get to the check in counters another CISF guard lay between. Since we were outside 3 hours from departure, he didn't let us in. No matter, we were in no hurry.





We were first to check in. We stormed in just as the check in lady appeared. She seemed like a newcomer and after a long while examining our documents.

She said, “Your visa seems to have expired”.
“What visa?”, I ask peering at my passport. It was my old expired Malaysian visa.
“Er, that is a Malaysian visa, we are only going to Kochi”, I say
“Oh, so where is your Saudi visa?”, she asks.
“No, no.. we are just going to Kochi.”, we both reply.
“Ah, so you are connecting in Kochi to Malaysia?”
“Illa, ngangallu veruthe irangiyatha”, says AD, which should translate to we’ve come just for fun!


She gives us the ‘you’re crazy’ look and gives us our boarding pass. I’d previously selected seats on IX’s website and was amazed at this feature.
However, the boarding pass reads two completely different seats numbers.
We tell her this and she gets us two new BPs. It takes her some convincing to get two separate window seats (“Why would you not want to sit together, why do you want two separate window seat?”).



Heading to the airside.

Since this flight departs from the international terminal, one is required to fill out a customs form which was handed to us at check in. There is a lot of information to fill out but the lady merely says to write one of our names and sign it. The immigration guy simply shoos the form away when it is given to him. What on earth is the need for the form in the first place?!





VT-AXI, the plane that would take us back to Kochi. She was pulled in to gate 2 by around 2:00 pm, thirty minute before departure.



A lone Jet 737-800 pulling in from MAA as 9W844. I would fly this flight a year later. It has since then been discontinued and not surprisingly as well, when I flew it the loads were less than 50%.

AI264, the MLE-TRV-BLR/MAA (At the time MAA) flight had pulled in as well, and boarding had commenced simultaneously for both that flight and ours as well. However, no announcement was made. As such, there were around 4-5 people in front of us in the line who had MAA printed on their boarding passes. These gentlemen were bewildered when we told them that they were queuing up for the wrong flight and were shaking their heads and muttering “Air India.. “ as they walked all the way to the other gate.



The same lady who checked us in tore our boarding passes and we were at the door. The crew – oh yes, the crew. They were gossiping away about something. Greet the passengers –something we’re paid to do? Nah, let’s take about that expensive sari I bought yesterday!



A CFM56 to look at from seat 12F. The crew made a welcome announcement at this stage. You can hear it in the video, 10 points if you can understand anything.



The number reporter. No other functions for this besides letting you know that four comes after three.





I was impressed at the brand new safety card, but this is probably because somebody stole the old one on the last flight!





I had three seats to myself. AD, who was at seat 12A, had two Indian business men, who took this journey regularly. He had a nice chat with them and they told him how IX was their lifeline – being the cheapest option. However, the conversation quickly turned into “Oh, that’s an expensive camera you have”. “My, *some distant relative *, got a better one cheaper!”, AD tells me.





Every aviation enthusiast’s nightmare – the windowless window seat.



The duct tape fix. Works like a charm.





There were only around 40-50 people aboard. And 19 got off at COK. That’s a surprising number considering the train’s much cheaper.

We pushed back 5 min delayed and headed off to the southern end of the runway before pulling a 180 and taking off northwards.





The overhead screens. I wonder if they are ever used. The safety demo was a manual one by the way.





The seatbelt sign remained switched on for the whole flight as expected. Surprisingly, on 6E316, which I’d flown the month before, they had conducted a full water + BOB run on TRV-COK amidst turbulence.



We landed and taxied towards the international terminal and parked next to VT-JNM which had come in from BOM as a Konnect flight.



We exited the terminal and went on to get a bus back to the city. Two KSRTC low floors are waiting. The low floors go to fort Kochi either via Vyttila or South. Unfortunately the early Vyttila low floor, which we wanted to take, had already left (Or so we thought, it turned out that one of the waiting buses was the Vytilla bound one, delayed slightly. We tried running after it – it didn’t work) so we split and AD took the south low floor, while I took a rickety old KSRT non-AC, as it was more convenient.

And that’s that. Our little adventure was over. IX had disappointed me, but it was my own fault. I had expected an LCC rivaling the likes of AK and 6E. But, to the people who really need IX, it is a perfectly satisfactory carrier, getting them to point B lesser than any other carrier in the sky.

With that, here’s the rating I’d give IX if I had to based on the current scale :
Seat - 7/10 (No complaints, perfectly fine for this short hop)
Crew – 0/10 (Might as well hire some trained baboons. Oh wait, what’s the difference?)
Value for Money – 8.5/10 (Can’t beat those prices)

Overall experience rating : 5.1/10

Thanks for reading and watching!

Feedback & comments appreciated.[/url]
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Theairplaneguy4ever
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Joined: 26 Sep 2012
Posts: 191
Location: Kochi, Kerala, India

PostPosted: Sat Oct 04, 2014 7:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

In the meantime, a few more video trip reports have come up on the channel.

Here's links to all of them :

Firefly FY2211 : Flying from Penang to Kuala Lumpur

Firefly is a small regional carrier in Malaysia and a subsidiary of Malaysia Airlines. I get to log the ATR 72-600 for the first time, in what is a great surprise.

Malaysia Airlines MH2634 : Flying from Kuala Lumpur to Labuan

Farewell to the MH 737-400. With these since retired, it would be first and last time on an MH734. Labuan btw is an island off the coast of Borneo and a separate territory.

MASwings MH3076 : Flying from Labuan to Kota Kinabalu

Flying a very rare airline, which flies around Borneo and East Malaysia. There were a lot of surprises in this one. Also, don't miss the travel segment at the end of the video!

Cheers!

Aditya

Theairplaneguy4ever
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jbalonso777
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Joined: 05 Jul 2012
Posts: 1501
Location: Never, never land

PostPosted: Sun Oct 05, 2014 9:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Great TR, thanks for sharing this 'blast from the past', although, it is just from barely 2 years ago! Yes, 9W844 is no more: that used to be the CCU-MAA-TRV flight, the plane would later go to DMM. Yes, VT-JNM is long gone.

Interesting - 6E had servie, IX didn't. And amazing pictures to along with that!
I have seen every single one of the videos you posted, great work!

That CFM56 engine looks massive! Surprised

Also, nice to see duct tape helping them out, again Razz I saw duct tape marks on AI's 787, VT-AND on my MAA-DEL flight.....

Regards
Jish
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sumantra
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Location: New Delhi

PostPosted: Sun Oct 05, 2014 9:30 am    Post subject: Re: Revival: Air India Express from Thiruvananthapuram to Ko Reply with quote

I must say that the first image: that of an AIX B738 standing beside a `horde' of palm trees...was enticing enough.
Sir, thank you for an extremely well-written trip report, which was perhaps the best way to start a Sunday morning for me, with a plantain in one hand, a glass of milk in another, and the biscuit jar close-by, for comfort.
One of the joys of reading a trip report from you, is the ability to perform a criss-crossing across different media. and what do you mean by saying that the video part was shabbiliy and hastily done? The video TR: the four main pieces of music were a beautiful combination of lilting Indian and Western melodies, beautifully created in your fertile mind, and presented in your trademark slick manner. Having not one but two video TRs was also a novelty: please try to persuade your fried to write more.
The written TR had the following gems from you, where my loud laughing woke up The Wife, who had hoped to get some rest at least, today.
Theairplaneguy4ever wrote:

...where nobody seems to require any sleep at 5:00 am. But that is the general case at any Indian railway station, people who seem perpetually lacking fatigue and so full of energy.

...The young lady next to us, who happens to hear our conversation, gives us the following enlightenment:“Er, excuse me, this is the reserved coach”.

At Central, we decide to have breakfast.. and lunch as well

The hilarious conversation with the IX check-in agent!

...were shaking their heads and muttering “Air India.. “ as they walked all the way to the other gate.

...You can hear it in the video, 10 points if you can understand anything.

The number reporter. No other functions for this besides letting you know that four comes after three.

...probably because somebody stole the old one on the last flight!

The duct tape fix. Works like a charm

The overhead screens. I wonder if they are ever used.

...Or so we thought, it turned out that one of the waiting buses was the Vytilla bound one, delayed slightly. We tried running after it – it didn’t work

By the time I had finished, The Wife was well up, and had started with the day's work.
IX does not look too enticing for me. The discussion about the expensive sari, the crew disappearing, and the whole works...
Thanks once again for posting the text+video(s) version. It was a treat.
Cheers, Sumantra.
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sumantra
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 05, 2014 10:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thank you for a nice preview, Sir! I am not very media or tech-savvy, hence I would personally appreciate it if you could post links to them on this forum itself? Second, once again, please also post the text versions of these TRs. Not only do you produce slick editing in your videos, have a great sound-over, and some great original music as well, I must say that your skill in writing TRs is amazing, with your keen sense of observation, as well as humour. Please humour all of us here Smile
Theairplaneguy4ever wrote:

Firefly FY2211 : Flying from Penang to Kuala Lumpur

Aditya, most of these carriers and locations, are relatively exotic for many members of this forum, so please keep it up: this was excellent. My only AT7-6 trip has been on 9W-K (made last year), and coming up soon.
Interesting to see a B727 as you were taxi'ing into KUL!

Theairplaneguy4ever wrote:

Malaysia Airlines MH2634 : Flying from Kuala Lumpur to Labuan

You set the tone beautifully for the trip with a good introduction, as well as some nice sights inside. The little slip with the kid running across the screen was interesting! Good that you got an eyebrowed B734 for the trip. Lovely music once again, in addition to some classy camera angles, and great shots.
It was nice to see an elderly bird very well maintained. I'll possibly appreciate more descriptions of the Indian-style chicken curry, in your text TR Smile

Theairplaneguy4ever wrote:

MASwings MH3076 : Flying from Labuan to Kota Kinabalu

This was exotic, quite so! A new style of reporting, starting with the engine whine, and the music following. Nice sights from the Labuan terminal. The superimposed stop-watch on take-off was quite interesting! Good that you got a Milo drink as well: though Milo isn't quite high among my list of choices in chocolate-based milk drinks! Lovely sights in the videos, of Kota Kinabalu: please describe more of these!

Cheers, Sumantra.
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sri_bom
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 06, 2014 6:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thank you for posting this report and it just proves that Air India Express is just good to take passengers from point A to Point B nothing more nothing less.

She said, “Your visa seems to have expired”.
“What visa?”, I ask peering at my passport. It was my old expired Malaysian visa.
“Er, that is a Malaysian visa, we are only going to Kochi”, I say
“Oh, so where is your Saudi visa?”, she asks.
“No, no.. we are just going to Kochi.”, we both reply.
“Ah, so you are connecting in Kochi to Malaysia?”
“Illa, ngangallu veruthe irangiyatha”, says AD, which should translate to we’ve come just for fun!

I could not help laughing at the conversations that you had with the check in lady, amazing that she had no clue on what she was doing.

Most form filling in India like the customs form you described is a ritual which no dares challenges. Hence even if the intent for which it was developed does not serve any purpose at some point it is still followed.

The duct tape does work like a charm and I hope one of these days they don’t tape up the engines to the plane as well.

Trivandrum airport is a quite nice and swanky airport as I flew recently and I found the toilets were very clean and some decent eating options as well.


Sri_Bom
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Nimish
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 07, 2014 2:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Lovely TR - thanks for posting. IX seems perfectly good at the job it's supposed to do - no full transportation of cargo - err - pax Smile

That legroom shot looks really painful - was the legroom actually that tight?
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Spiderguy252
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 07, 2014 3:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for the share, and adding tidbits of the trip not visible on the video!

Loved this shot, especially:


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