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ameya · Last edited by ameya on Sun Nov 08, 2009 12:02 pm; edited 1 time in total

Background :
My family decided to celebrate diwali in Bengluru. I had an option of taking a flight out of BOM, and book on some airline for my family on PNQ-BLR.
I checked tickets online for BOM-BLR/PNQ-BLR and decided that even I would go from PNQ.
Checked on cleartrip, makemytrip and yatra and settled for 6E website, where it was 150Rs cheaper than the cheapest of the other 3 websites.
Booking was swift, and the website made me select the seats. It also gave me an option of selecting meals, which I dint. Choose 27A & 26A,B,C for 4 of us. However the payment option was last, which makes me wonder, if the fares would change, when somebody else who is under process of booking, books before me and the fare class changes
The reason for choosing Indigo was the timing. IT had dep at 740 from PNQ and it seemed too early.
Indigo had dep at 9:15, it was 6E 103, which does a DEL-PNQ-BLR. Travel being on Saturday, 17th Oct, the flights from PNQ were at different times than other days from PNQ, due to runway closure from 11:00. Incidentally even BLR has airport closure on Saturday for 3 hours.
We reached airport at 7:50 for a 9:15 dep. My family hates to travel with me by air, because everytime I get them earlier to airport, find a seat for them, and I keep roaming around. This time they protested, but I convinced that it was Saturday and flights are back to back at PNQ, which wasn’t the case !
The airport was all empty, a welcome change. Two weeks back I took an early morning flight and the terminal was in terrible mess then.
CHECK-IN & SECURITY
Checkin was swift. The staff told the flight was almost full. The counter staff was friendly. Cleared security and waited in the hold area. IT was still there, A321, which was delayed and left at 8:15.
The CISF lady dropped a laptop on ground which resulted in an obvious loud argument between the person who owned and laptop and the CISF inspector.
The new Terminal :
The new terminal is OK, The aerobridge is yet to come up, and boarding for 2 flights gets announced from the first floor which has gates 3 and 3A. It means you climb up and come down again. Even after extension, the space is not sufficient for the no. of flights even at non-peak hours. The erstwhile , Port Lounge, is now on first floor, and nicely done up.
The action begins…
We went and waited on first floor since boarding was from gate 3A. Around 8:40, the Indigo ground force was ready with step ladders, loaders, and other stuff.
Aircraft arrived late from Delhi, at 8:55 instead of 8:45. Just as the aircraft arrived, people just swung into action. It was VT-INZ.
I was sure that the flight would get late, and boarding started at 9:03. Surprisingly at 9:12 boarding was complete. Just when the last person came in, FA announced Boarding Over. Few mins after which the pilot announced , ground personel to deplane. This all, when it involved people walking from 1st floor to ground and then walking till the a/c .
Seats were spotleesly clean, belts arranged properly, something not seen in other carriers.
The load was 174
Indigo has invested in hand held bar code readers at boarding point, which sped up the boarding. The person doing this was also greeting each and every pax by name.
Doors closed at 9:16 and pushback at 9:22. Take off was at 9:26, using rwy 9.
Pilot announced post take off that it would take 1hr 8mins to reach BLR and we would cruise at 35,000 feet at 857 kmph.
One menu card which had merchandise directory. Service started soon. Pre booked meals were given first, followed by the meal service. I took a sandwich and pepsi. Sandwich was tasty and nicely packed.
Soon after, cleaning started, and it was quick and efficient. A Trolley, with opening on the top was used to dump all the garbage. This seemed quick, unlike DN, where they used to use a plastic bag for cleaning.
Indigo had a block time of 1:40 instead of 1:20 of other carriers on this route. 6E’s strategy of having excess B.T. has paid off in terms of OTP statistics, since they are consistently on top of the chart.
The pilot announced that we were 6 mins away from touch down. We landed smoothly on rwy 9 and exited on some taxiway which got us to the terminal immediately.
Indigo, it seems, as a policy doesn’t use aerobridges. Though a few were empty, we went to a remote bay and yet again the ground force sprang into action. Many busses lined up and quickly we were bussed to the terminal. Luggage came quickly, but not in 5 mins as the posters claimed at the airport.
This was my first visit at BIAL, which made me nostalgic about HAL airport, I made back to back trips from there to PNQ / BOM in 2006 and it was a chaotic experience.
BIAL was clean, easy to navigate, but I would prefer T1D of DIAL anyday, because of its design.
BIAL looked a oversized cube.
Date of Travel : 17/Oct
Sector : PNQ-BLR
Flt : 6E 103
A/c Details : VT-INZ (A320) , MSN : 3943, Year of Manufacture : 2009
STA(from DEL):8:45 ATA(from DEL):8:55
STD:9:16 Pushback : 9:22 Airborne :9:26
STA: 10:55 ATA: 10:42

Aircrafts spotted in PNQ :
VT-KFS : Kingfisher A321
VT-BAJ : Bajaj Auto, Global 5000
VT-CAP : Poonawala , Falcon 900
Aircrafts spotted in BLR
2 9W B738 in new colours
1 S2 B737
1 KF A320
1 KFR A320
3 ATR , all in Simplify dn at remote bay
A32x and a330 at remote bay
6E next, waiting for take off.

ameya · Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2009 12:54 pm Post subject:

Link to my album

I hope this works

ameya · Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2009 12:55 pm Post subject:

Have some pics uploaded on picasa, but aint able to put it here.

Can somebody help me out please

AirIndia0001 · Member Joined: 28 Sep 2007 Posts: 391

Short and Crisp TR. Thanks for sharing.
Pictures would have been nice, but I do understand that at PNQ its a different story.

AirIndia0001 · Member Joined: 28 Sep 2007 Posts: 391

Spiderguy252 · Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2009 2:41 pm Post subject:

binaiks · Member Joined: 15 Jul 2007 Posts: 162 Location: VOBL/VOCI

ameya · Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2009 6:49 pm Post subject:

[img]http://www.flickr.com/photos/20525875@N08/4063461573/[/img]
VT-BAJ at PNQ

ameya · Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2009 7:00 pm Post subject:

Missed ratings ( on 10)

Check - in & Sceening : 9

Boarding : 10 Impressive...12 mins and the flight left on time.

Service:7

Food:7

Will definitely recommend this airline to others for being on time

haree · Posted: Mon Nov 02, 2009 5:22 pm Post subject:

ameya · Posted: Sat Nov 07, 2009 5:20 pm Post subject:

[/img]

ameya · Posted: Sun Nov 08, 2009 12:06 pm Post subject:

New arrival terminal at PNQ

New Departure terminal at PNQ

VT-BAJ at PNQ

Legspace

after landing

Remote bay

Terminal

ATC tower

India Post A732

KF A330

B757-F

Spiderguy252 · Posted: Sun Nov 08, 2009 12:25 pm Post subject:

Nice pictures, ameya. The BLR ATC definitely does look weird.....
_________________
Yeah.