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me111993 · Member Joined: 04 Sep 2009 Posts: 3225 Location: MAA/AMD

TR: 0003

Routing: AMD-BLR-AMD

Introduction

Hi Everyone!!!

This happens to be one of the very few TR’s involving both AMD’s new domestic terminal as well as Jet Konnect, so through this TR, I hope I am able to provide a reasonably good overview on the same… At the same time, I’d like to apologize for the very poor quality of Pictures taken at AMD, taking pictures using a proper camera in AMD is near impossible , because there are a lot of rather stubborn cops around, so I had to take them using my cell-phone (having a 2MP camera), and even while doing that I was objected by a cop, so I will be posting descriptions after every picture, hoping it would make up for it’s sub-standard quality and a rather limited number of them.

Background

A trip down south was on the cards for quite a while, and Ooty and Mysore were the two chosen destinations. This trip had to be via BLR, flying on AMD-BLR-AMD sectors and BLR-Mysore-Ooty-BLR was done by road.

Now, there are 4 daily flights operating AMD-BLR, 2-6E, 1-G8 and 1-9W Konnect. Fares were reasonably equal, Jet’s fares happened to be 2nd cheapest, after 6E, we got a good deal of Rs 5600 return, upon my heavy insistence and my father being a JP Platinum member, choosing 9W was almost a no-brainer!

So it was fixed, my flight-out will be on the 12th of May and return will be on the 17th of May, on 9W 2307/2306 respectively…

FLIGHT: 1: AMD-BLR

# : 9W 2307

Route : AMD-BLR

A/C : B737-86N (W)

Regn. : VT-JBP (Yeah, that’s right!!! Wink

)

Load : 90/186

SDT : 1500

ADT : 1455

SAT : 1700

AAT : 1654

This particular aircraft operates the routing COK-SHJ-COK-BLR-AMD-BLR-COK, with it’s only major halt being an AMD for 210 minutes. It arrives from COK/BLR operating 9W 2306 at 1130 in AMD and departs back at 1500 hrs from AMD for BLR/COK as 9W 2307.

The flight was scheduled for departure at 1500hrs, it usually takes about 45 minutes from my house to the airport during owing to rush-hour traffic, about 20-30 minutes in the afternoons, so I left home at 1330 after having a light lunch and reached the airport in about 20 minutes at some-time around 1350.

En-Route to the airport!

This is the new terminal being constructed at AMD, it’s still un-clear weather it’s going to be serving Domestic or International operations, it is also to be inaugurated on the 20th of this month, even though construction is still incomplete. The domestic terminal is towards the camera’s right..

Heading towards the domestic terminal, what you see on the right side of this picture is construction going on to connect the New Terminal (under const) to the Old one (current Domestic one), or better stated, to connect the International Terminal to the Domestic one. This tunnel is supposed to be 400m long, air-conditioned and having a conveyer belt for passenger convenience and seamless transit. Now, I don’t really know what are the usage estimates according to AAI for this tunnel, but I personally (and rather optimistically) would guess about 2-3 passengers daily. Wink

(I am seriously serious here) Wink

This is the departures section…

The terminal building.

That’s the parking lot and New Terminal again…

Post entry, the area visible is the one accessible to visitors, in-fact the sign states “No Visitors Allowed this Point” Plus the door on the first floor towards the left, of this pic is the lounge.

The following 3 pics have been taken from the same spot.

Straight down the way visible (on the right of IT’s check-in counter) is the security check area. Now, if this terminal happens to be converted into an International one, then there is enough space for immigration counters (at-least 3 of them, horizontally)

AMD does not have in-line baggage X-ray systems, so, before check-in, bags have to be X-rayed manually. Towards the right is the Jet Airways Baggage X-Ray Counter.

Hmmm.., no comments on this one! Wink

The arrivals section is towards the right side of this terminal, but the departure and arrival sections are separated by a little circular area, having trees and plants, the sunlight coming in is from that area.

All the check-in counters. Indigo’s counters by the wall towards the left of this pic.

Check-In:

Web-Check-in was done earlier in the morning, and seats 3A, 3B, 4D and 4F were chosen. Jet’s website was hassle free, web-check-in was quick and efficient!

We were greeted by a cheerful looking Jet Airways Check-in agent at the Premiere’ counter (having a JP Platinum card) who re-printed our board-cards, priority sign was tagged along with our bags too, overall process taking less than 5 minutes. The agent then handed over our boarding passes, wished us a happy and safe flight and informed us that boarding will be announced in 10 minutes.

By now, the time was about 2pm.

Security Check/Post Security Check:

Quick, Efficient and organized!!

And, I don’t know why, but I held back my customary question this time!

Security was done in less than 10 minutes, so by 1405, all regulatory formalities were over! Pretty neat, I’d say, because there were 5 departures scheduled at this point of time,

6E> PNQ
9W> BLR
SG> CCU
IT> IDR/RPR/CCU
9W> BOM (Delayed by 60 minutes)

Time now was about 2:10-ish.

The boarding area on the ground level, gates 5&6 are visible here. There is equal amount of seating space on the left side of this area.

SG (VT-SPS) to CCU. This is connected to Gate 2.

6E to PNQ. (gate-1)

Our boarding was supposed to be from gate 7, on the ground level, before I could go upstairs, boarding was announced, however, I had arrived into this airport twice since September last year (that’s when the aero-bridge operations were started) but never departed through it, so didn’t want to miss an opportunity to go to the first level, so I did!

This escalator leads to Departure Level 1, and opens up with Gates 1&2 on the right, and 3&4 on the left.

The same SG aircraft.

Seating area, around Gate 3. Pretty comfortable and spacious! 

Gates 2/3/4, in a straight line, as you can see, very spacious, as you can see! The departure gates are on the left.

Gates 3 and 4.

Now, I decided to go down-stairs as there were a couple of cops around and well……!!!

Boarding:
Boarding was announced at 14:10, pretty early for a 15:00hrs flight but not surprising…

Boarding in our case was not organized, may-be due to less loads, but on the upper level, boarding for both, the Indigo flight as well as the SG flight was orderly done, row-wise. (15-30 first, and 1-14 next).

It was while boarding that I actually asked for the loads on this flight from the guy who was marking the sequences. He said that the loads were around 90 passengers, so it was a reasonably empty flight and I could sit any-where I wanted to once boarding was over! A little more than I asked for, but appreciated, none the less!

The aircraft pic, taken from the bus.

The one thing that I was looking forward to knowing was the aircraft registration of this aircraft; I had earlier looked up to some pics of Jet Airways aircrafts’ in SHJ, and found VT-JGG/JGF. So I was certain that this aircraft would be of the JG* series, but since then COK-SHJ-COK had been converted into an all economy flight, so was expecting a change from the two mentioned above but what I saw, quiet literally stunned me!!

We were flying VT-JBP!!! Now, for those of you who don’t know, VT-JBP, on the 12th of May, 10’, happened to be Jet’s NEWEST 737!!! It was delivered to Jet on the 5th of December, 2009! Actually, Jet took delivery of it’s next B737-800 (VT-JBQ), on the 12th of May, nice co-incidence, I’d say!! Very Happy

This aircraft was delivered in all economy Konnect configuration from Boeing. Now this is one thing that Jet seems to be doing, with which I disagree. All aircrafts delivered after VT-JGP (VT-JGP-VT-JGZ and VT-JBB-VT-JBQ) are aircrafts in Jet Airways configuration, with IFE, VT-JBL and VT-JBP, being two exceptions. I’ve always felt that Jet take delivery of these new aircrafts in proper Jet Airways configs, simultaneously retire one of the older VT-JN* series aircrafts and convert one on the JG* series aircrafts to Jet Konnect, I do understand this would rise some costs, but I don’t think it would do the same substantially.

The Flight:

We were greeted with the same “soothing” hello and Welcome aboard by a FA on the door, this is on thing which never gets mechanical, it never seems as if the crew were trained to say this in this way, it’s always very natural, one thing I appreciate a lot!

Excellent legroom!! This is one thing I’d like to remark upon, very comfortable seats! I’m 6’1, and just look at the room available, the seats were equally very comfortable, with the recline, your legs slide into the space beneath the seat in front of you, making it pretty comfortable, for a medium haul flight of about 4-5 hours, which this aircraft does actually operate!

Another great thing I noticed was the face that the crew was distributing glasses of water in trays during boarding, again a first, at-least for LCC’s, I never noticed this in 6E or SG. A good move, because, the temperature outside was about 44C, and the aircraft was on the ground for over 3 hours, so it was uncomfortable if not hot inside.

Our very-own bus-stop….err International Terminal! Wink

How tiny!!

The aircraft, being only 6 month old was expectedly in immaculate condition, there were some stains on the carpets below, but the otherwise, beautiful!!! Very Happy

Hmmm…..!!!

6E A320 to CCU.

Boarding was almost complete by about 1430, but there was a family of 3 which were about 15 minutes late, so finally doors were closed at 1450.

We pushed back at 1455.

The crew announcements were not very clear, they seemed to be a little rushed, I’d say.

This is the new terminal. Even this is supposed to have 4 aero-bridges.

This is a pic I got from wiki..

Take-off was from Runway 23, we had to wait for a while, in which a Jet Airways B737-800 operating 9W 2049 landed from BOM, this flight was operating about 55 mins late.

AMD!!!

The Take-Off was true Boeing style, powerful. Wink

One thing that I immediately noticed was how quiet the aircraft was while take-off!! May-be it was because of my seat, in-front, but the last time I’d traveled sitting in-front was about 2 years ago, in Business Class of one of IC’s vintage A320’s, en-route to SIN from DEL, now at that time, the Take-Off was so very loud, that it felt as if some-body had powered on a supercharged diesel generator right outside the aircraft!! Wink

Again, I am, seriously serious!!! Wink

The seat next to me was empty, so the leg-room again.

After about 15 minutes, the crew went about selling food on board, as I’d had lunch before the flight, I was not hungry, so just had another glass of water.

Some-where over BOM.

After the crew had finished with the meal serving meals to those, I decided to go to the back and have a chat with the crew, and the first question I asked her was about the loads on this flight, as this was a fairly new flight and Jet’s second experiment on the AMD-BLR sector (the first one was an S2 flight, operating JAI-AMD-BLR, which was terminated in about 2 months), Her reply was “improving” which was good to hear. There were 3 crew members who kept on making rounds at the back of the plane, and I was kept busy by either one of them for the next 30 odd minutes, by talking about this “NEW” aircraft being in all economy config, how Konnect Select was supposed to function and well DPS Ahmedabad!

Cabin Shot, even this was taken from my cell phone, but through out the flight it was in flight mode.

There was couple with a baby who was constantly crying, and his father was roaming around the cabin, trying to get him to sleep, I guess, this is where, one of the FA’s took the kid in her lap, and tried doing the same for quiet a while. Again, wonderful gesture!

The aircraft was mostly empty, so I went about from window to window taking wing-shots!! Fun timepass!!

Nice cloud patterns!

We started our decent at about 16:30, strangely enough, our Captain never came about on the PA system to give standard flight details like cruising altitude, speed, etc, etc…

We experienced mild turbulence on approach, otherwise, everything was normal, from the direction of the sunlight, it was fairly clear that we made from the west which meant we’d be landing on Runway>>>>>>>>.

Some Approach pics…

I personally love this pic!!

Some mining activity, I assume…

Touchdown was reasonably smooth.

One thing I distinctly remember reading in an interview or an article, regarding plane spotting, someone from Bengaluru, had said that “we get to witness some of the smoothest possible touch-down’s by Air India pilots, while some pilots treat the aircraft as if they are in an Formula 1 race or practicing for one!!!” (As far as I could recall, it may not be these exact lines), but I tell you what, using the term “witnessed” this so called F1 practice would be wrong, because I experienced it on this particular flight, and I guess using the phrase “was a victim of it” will be wrong too, because, well, I enjoyed it!!! Wink

The approach and landing was fairly smooth, but, taxi into BLR and out of AMD was FAST!!!

Taxi-in…

EK A330-200 from DXB.

We docked into an aerobridge.

This apparently happens to be the ‘J’ of ‘Jet’!! Wink

Arrival:

Arrival into BIAL was a pleasure! Beautiful and efficient, having priority tags, our bags arrived at the carousal just as we entered the Baggage Reclaim Area, again, pretty fast!

In all we were out of the airport by 17:05!!

Arrivals BIAL.

RETURN

FLIGHT: 2

Route: BLR-AMD

# : 9W 2306

A/C : B737-86N (W)

Regn. : VT-JBP

Load : 156/186

SDT : 0930

ADT : 1030

SAT : 1130

AAT : 1215

We got back from Ooty on late afternoon on the 16th and later that evening there was a pretty big thunderstorm in BLR, which delayed evening flights out of BLR by about 120-160 minutes. Now as I happened to know the further routing of 9W 2307 (whose departure further to COK was delayed by 155 minutes), I could well presume that there would definitely be some delay in our flight tomorrow, I kept track of all further flights operated by this aircraft, and as expected all of them were delayed.

In the morning I got up at about 6, to find out that 9W 561 (SHJ-COK) was about 110 minutes delayed and was expected in COK at 0710, the scheduled departure time of 9W 2306 from COK is at 0745.
Jet had already sent a sms alert on my father’s phone stating that the flight was delayed by 30 minutes and is to depart BLR at 1000 instead of 0930. Nice, they kept us informed well in advance, but I guess this has become regulatory with almost every airline.

One thing that I noticed in my hotel, during breakfast was that there were a LOT of Chinese people, and I know that they’d come in from China because they could not speak English very clearly or without much effort. (effect of CA’s BLR-Chengdu flight??)

So, after having a rather heavy breakfast buffet Smile

, we left for BIAL at about 0840, expecting an hour’s drive to the airport.

BIAL’s ATC Control Tower!

It took us about 70 minutes to get to the airport, so we reached the airport at about 10 minutes to 10.

My father was not traveling with us, so no JP Platinum Priorities this time Crying or Very sad

Entered Departures Hall through Gate-3.

Check-In:

The line for Normal Economy Check-In was fairly long about 3 rounds, back and forth.

…and a fairly deserted lines for Premiere’ passengers and passengers who were JP Platinum/Gold members.

There was a small number of Jet Airways Airport Staff members who were helping aged passengers while checking-in by moving their luggage trolleys and stuff. Smile

The line was moving fairly quickly too, within about 10 minutes, we were directed towards Counter 13 for Check-in,

One thing that I noticed was, on counter 14 there was a reasonably smart looking gentle-man in his mid-30’s I’d say, carrying a Blackberry Bold 9700 and a Sony VAIO Laptop (he had the bag at least!!), who apparently got quiet sweaty and cranky when he was asked to wait for 5 minutes for his boarding card. He almost started yelling at the agent, here’s how the conversation went,

Him >> I know this flight is over-booked, listen please I cannot afford to miss this flight…..,
the check-in agent too answered in a rather nervous fashion, something which I haven’t noticed with, Jet a-lot, saying that
Agent >> you will get your board-card sir, please wait aside for two minutes…
Him >> my god, I cannot imagine this is happening…
Agent >> Sir, I am telling you, I’ll give you your boarding pass, please just wait for two minutes…
Him >> Listen miss, you don’t understand my problem, please call your supervisor now…….this continued for a couple of minutes…

Before, another Jet Airways check-in agent appeared, rather suddenly at that, and repeated the exact same thing which the first check-in agent had been saying, but differently, with some amount of calmness and quiet confident authority, a class act, I’d say, the gentle-man stepped aside, without saying anything, looking a little calm and composed now.

In the mean time, our check-in was done and our board cards were handed to us by our agent, who hadn’t been distracted at-all by the happenings on her neighbor’s desk! I got seat 15A, emergency exit row seat! Lots and Lots of legroom! Very Happy

The check-in agent wished us a Great Flight, with a cheerful smile before she got, busy with the next person in line…

The entire process took us about 15 minutes, so the time now was 0905.

We were to board through Gate 4, and out stated boarding time was 0930.

Security Check/Post Security Check:

We encountered another long fast moving line in Security Check. Incidentally I happened to find the same check-in gentleman in front of me!!!

Had an incident free Security Check, that took about 10 more minutes, so we were in the boarding area at about 0915.

FIDS

FIDS 2!!

IT A320 being prepared for departure…

The boarding area was very crowded, boarding for none of the flights was done in an organized manner…

Taken from one of the side windows. Ground vehicles visible,

9W B737-800 (VT-JGJ) operating a Konnect flight to CCU.

If somebody could help me on this, what is the path visible on the top left for??
The flight got delayed by another 15 minutes, which was reported and the departure time was changed to 1015 on the Display Board at gate 4 too.

I after a while started talking to the Jet Airways agent on gate 4, who went about telling me the routing of this particular aircraft and went about explaining the reason for the delay…..

Finally at around 0955 our flight came in from COK, the aircraft was parked on a remote stand, beside another 9W B737-800 (VT-JBE, which was operating 9W 803 to MAA).
As soon as our aircraft was docked, an announcement was made stating that 9W2306 had arrived from COK and this very same aircraft will be operating 9W 2306 ( Cool

) to AMD ant boarding will be announced in about 10 minutes.
The moment the last part was said, a big chunk of passengers stood up and formed two queues for boarding!! The poor 9W agent requested passengers to remain seated about 3 times, (to no avail, of-course Wink

) before he gave up!

Boarding

Finally boarding was announced at 1005!
Again, without any order or organization…

Heading downstairs towards the bus…

VT-KFW, operating an IT flight to Bhubaneshwar.

Here’s our aircraft!!!
VT-JBP parked right beside VT-JBE!

I boarded from L2.

SG B737-800.

Light Effects!! Wink

I actually clicked this shot just in-front the rear exit, with the FA standing right in front of me, to whom I actually showed this pic, and her reaction was ‘ooooo, niiice!! Cool

When I arrived at my seat, there actually was a FA waiting for me who gave me all the regulatory information required to be given to a passenger seated on an emergency exit row seat.

A-LOT of leg-room but the seat was non-reclining, it did make it a tad uncomfortable, but just a little, plus both seats next to me were empty, so I didn’t mind it much!

VT-DKR operating a flight out to IDR. Notice the tail-fin!

It was from one of those tiny windows on the side that I’d taken the ground vehicles shot!

Cabin-Shot!

I don’t know for what reason, but we started push-back at around 1030, exactly 60 minutes late than the scheduled departure.

9W 803 off to MAA!!

The Flight

The safety demonstrations were done and we were informed that our flight to AMD would take 1 hour and 40 minutes.

Now before we approached to the active runway, I was constantly taking pics of the tarmac, this didn’t impress the guy sitting on 15F, who in a rather weird way asked me to cut it off… He said whilst shacking his head constantly “photo kyu lete ho?? Mat lo naa, kya kaam hai (Why are you taking pics, DON’T, what will you with them) …and so on…!!??!” At first I pretended that I was unable to get what he was asking me to do then, after a little while, when he didn’t stop, I replied, we’re permitted to keep our camera switched on, my phone is OFF!!” and turned away! He kept on shaking his head and murmuring something to himself. He then asked for a glass of water, it was then that I really wanted to crush a pill and mix in that glass of water which would keep him nice and sleepy for the rest of the flight, as it turned out, I have absolutely no idea how, he did go to sleep, about 5 minutes post take-off Very Happy

and woke-up only about 20 minutes prior to landing!!! Cool

AI A319 lifts off!!

Unlike on the inbound flight, taxi to the active was nice and smooth. Wink

Bye bye BLR!

Take-off was the same ‘POWERFUL’!! >> noise levels were definitely pretty low!

We took-off at about 10:40, a good 70 minutes post our scheduled time…

May-be the 9W ground staff at COK didn’t get enough time to ready this flight for a Domestic operation, so the seat-back pockets still had versions of Jet Wings International!

This should give you a good idea of the leg-room!
.

Seat-Width.

Regular formalities (buy on board meals) commenced about 15 minutes post departure…
As I was not hungry, I had a couple of glasses of water…

After meals were distributed, and trash collected (about 50 minutes into the flight), I went to the front of the aircraft, this time and had a long (welcoming and wonderful) conversation with the lead FA.

He quiet literally welcomed me by switching on the lights or rather brightening the lights in the forward galley!! Very Happy

We talked about new possible international routes, the configurations of the newer Jet Airways aircrafts according to which VT-JBL and VT-JBP are the only two aircrafts in the JB* series operating in Konnect configuration, VT-JBQ which was delivered just a few days ago (12th May) is most probably in Jet Airways configuration (I actually checked flight logs for VT-JBQ and that aircraft has been operating both the daily flights between BOM and DXB, so it has to be in Jet Airways configuration).
We also talked about the Flight Simulator Series  and further study plans of myself… when I asked him, he said that he could ‘definitely’ arrange for a cockpit visit post landing!!! Very Happy

Now, talking to Flight Crews is one thing that I tried doing on both AI flights previously where-in firstly they either pretended or actually could-not hear what I was saying and then after 5 odd minutes of struggling, they would give me a reasonably clear indication that I was not welcome there at all and so I would go back to my seat, disappointed, in case of my 6E flight earlier this December, the cabin-crew were far too busy with the meal services, for a 50 minute flight and having 180 passengers to serve did keep them understandably occupied, this was not the case with AI as only food boxes were delivered about 10 minutes post take-off and on both occasions loads were abysmal..

Here, on both flights the crew was more than eager to talk, especially on the return leg, the lead FA was wonderful. On both occasions whatever we talked, was not a question answer session or an interview, with me asking questions and them answering, it was a proper conversation, which is precisely why I say that the crew were more than eager to talk.

Just before starting our decent our captain came on the PA system, and gave us flight details, we’d cruised at 40,000 feet at about 910 kmph, he also gave us weather conditions at AMD, pretty terrifying to know that when you land, you’re gonna be welcomed by 43C !!

Back on my seat I was tremendously excited to visit the cockpit of an aircraft barely 5 months old, plus, it had been over 10 years since I last visited the cockpit, the last time was on a BA 747-400 from LHR to YYZ! I was only 7 then!!

The FA then distributed Flight Review cards,

Now, this message doesn’t quiet have the impact of a certain Dr Mallya saying you are a guest at my home, but it still holds good! Wink

We started our decent at about 11:55..

Heading from Southern India, we made a 180 degree turn and approached Runway 23.

This happens to be the Narmada Canal! Smile

Some Approach Shots…

Over the runway now!

Touch-Down!! Was smooth as silk!! Very Happy

We touched down at 12:15, 45 minutes later than scheduled.

The reverse thrust!!

We continued till the end of the runway before turning ‘right’, into the taxi-way.

6E Ground Force!

There was a 6E A320, VT-INK, which was operating BLR-AMD-DEL, we were supposed to arrive into AMD 30 minutes before this bird!
Other aircraft on the ground were, VT-SPO, SG B737-800 to JAI, a DN 360 A310, a 9W B737-700 was on the taxiway operating 9W 324 to BOM, and a Flash ATR 42 (perhaps leased by DN)

VT-INK

We docked into an aero-bridge, beside the SG bird.

DN 360, A310

VT-SPO.

All prepared for departure!!

I waited for every-body to de-plane and once that was done, I was allowed to visit the cockpit!! Phenomenal Experience!! Very Happy

I was planning to a comprehensive seat review and take a good cabin-shop but I kept post-poning it, and at the end I decided I’d do the same after visiting the cockpit, but as it turned out, when I was out there was ground staff inside already, so I decided to just move out.

Arrival:

This has to be the most disappointing part of the arrival section, post the aero-bridge, this is the area which connects you to the terminal, it’s not dirty, but just looks ancient in comparison to the rest of the terminal building.

Long walk to the end, towards my right, we have the departures hall.

This is the area where AAI can have the arrival’s immigration hall.

Baggage Reclaim Area…

We waited for about 10 minutes before our bags came along…

This is another shot I got from wikipedia.

Another wiki shot!!

Arrivals Area, AMD.

We were out of the airport by around 12:50, considering that the aircraft docked in at the gate at 12:20, I left the aircraft at 12:35, to be out in 15 minutes (without priority tags) was a fast and efficient…

The Verdicts:

1>> AMD Airport: Even though AMD was not even half as fancy as BLR was, the airport didn’t lack in anything either. All basic required facilities offered were decent & importantly all regulatory checks were quick and efficient, and this is not true in afternoon hours, when passenger density in the airport is low, there were 3 more security check desks which were non-operational in the afternoon, and are used during peak hours. The 3 negative points about AMD are
1>>Horrible state of trolleys, they are really hard to maneuver.
2>>The area pre/post the aero-bridge is pretty bad, as I stated earlier, almost ancient looking when compared to the rest of the airport.
3>>The seats in the departure area, on the ground floor have cushions made of cloth, which have deteriorated considerably as time as progressed, the same is however not true for seats in the upper departure level, whose cushions are made of leather.

2>> BLR Airport: Magnificent was the term I used for BIAL upon arrival from AMD, and post departure, I am gonna stick with the same post departure too!! The only thing that I found really disappointing with BIAL was the post security area which was overly crowded and boarding, all of whom were not done in an organized manner.

3>> Flights: One mistake a-lot of people make is that they compare Jet Konnect operations to main-line Jet Airways operations, which is wrong, and I’m not implying that crew on board Jet Konnect flights do not serve passengers with the same amount of dedication and intensity as they would’ve done on a Jet Airways flight, it’s just that there’s not much service to be offered!!
If I start comparing these two of my flights with some of my previous Indigo or Spice flights, Jet Konnect will be top rated, hands down, the product they offered and their crew was exponentially better (IMHO) then the two mentioned above.

Ratings:

>>Flight 1 : AMD-BLR
Check-In : 9/10
Aircraft : 9/10 (expected)
Crew : 8/10
Seats : 10/10 (awesome, make absolutely no mistake about that!!)
Punctuality: 10/10

TOTAL: 46/50 (92%)

>>Flight 2: BLR-AMD
Check-In : 9/10
Aircraft : 9/10
Crew : 11/10 (I’ll give a concrete reason) Wink

Seats : 10/10
Punctuality: 7/10 (should’ve given 6 but Jet informed about the delay well in advance plus there wasn’t really anything Jet could’ve done to avoid the delay)

TOTAL: 46/50 (92%)

Now for the extra 1 point given to the crew of the second flight, they were excellent, but 2 instances that do stand out in my mind are.
1>> While boarding, the photograph incident, as I’d mentioned above! (trust me, Id’ not expected that to happen!!)
2>> I have this habit of donating “thank you-es”, weather it be the check-in agent, agent at the boarding gate, FA’s after a flight and so on, and usually my thank you-es are responded by a smile, a nod, or a crisp “you’re welcome sir, real pleasure meeting you” by the lead FA in my flight to BLR, upon returning to AMD when I thanked the lead FA who was at the door interacting with a ground staff member, he turned to me, shook my hand and said, “you don’t have to thank me Rishul, it was my duty to serve you, I’m glad that you had a nice flight, take care, bye bye!!” WOW!!! Very Happy

that brought a smile on my face which stayed on till we left the arrivals hall. I read this phrase some where, “it’s these little things that make a good airline great!” and it was so true in this case.!!!

Thank-you for reading my Trip Report, I hope you enjoyed it, I sure did enjoy writing it!!!
Comments and criticism WELCOME!!! Very Happy

Cheers
Rishul a.k.a me111993 Wink

_________________
Causal Determinism : We are hardwired to need answers. The Caveman who heard a rustle in the bushes and checked out to see what it was, lived longer than the guy, who assumed it was just a breeze.

- Greg House

Spiderguy252 · Posted: Fri May 28, 2010 2:11 pm Post subject:

Fantastic TR Rishul. The pics were nice as well. Wink

One question though- which was the AI aircraft next to the EK flight at BLR? Was it an A319 coming in from SIN?
_________________
Yeah.

jasepl · Member Joined: 26 Jul 2008 Posts: 4257 Location: bund-bay

Great report! And thanks for the numerous pics!

Just curious though, why is boarding at BLR still by stairs? Isn't it a brand new airport? One which, you would think, would not have the excuses of space constraints etc.
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Spiderguy252 · Posted: Fri May 28, 2010 3:12 pm Post subject:

jasepl · Member Joined: 26 Jul 2008 Posts: 4257 Location: bund-bay

Spiderguy252 · Posted: Fri May 28, 2010 3:23 pm Post subject:

jasepl · Member Joined: 26 Jul 2008 Posts: 4257 Location: bund-bay

me111993 · Member Joined: 04 Sep 2009 Posts: 3225 Location: MAA/AMD

avbuff · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 5031

Excellent TR! Job well done.

The pictures were really elaborate, AMD as well as BLR.

Regarding the AMD airport even if they give this domestic terminal for international flights it will be a delight. Or rather have an integrated terminal. It is not that AMD is overflowing with international operations. At no point are there 2 flights using the international terminal ( that includes the connectors and the IC flight to HYD). Well yes if EK goofs up there will be 3 at one time, but it'll be mostly 2.

Hope something goods come out of it.

me111993 · Member Joined: 04 Sep 2009 Posts: 3225 Location: MAA/AMD

Nimish · Posted: Sun May 30, 2010 10:51 pm Post subject:

Very interesting TR - thanks for posting. As they say, a picture can convey a 1000 words, and in this case the pictures do their job pretty well Smile

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Glad you got to enjoy the BLR weather, it's been terribly hot in the past few years, it used to be much cooler and wetter in the past.
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me111993 · Member Joined: 04 Sep 2009 Posts: 3225 Location: MAA/AMD

stealthpilot · Member Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 2325 Location: BLR, DXB

Very very nice TR.... and nice pics.
It's always good to see pics of my home airport Smile

me111993 · Member Joined: 04 Sep 2009 Posts: 3225 Location: MAA/AMD

RKRamesh · Member Joined: 20 Feb 2010 Posts: 165

One of the nicest TRs i have come across with a lot of pictorial touch points. Clearly indicates the passenger experience. Thanks Rishul.

By the way the mezzanine corridor to the top left of the waiting lounge that you asked about was the arrivals walkway that is segregated from the departures waiting lounge.

Happy to note that you liked Bangalore - I too find it a friendly cosmopolitan city. BLR airport is small - falls in the 5 - 15 mil passengers per annum category. It is smaller than Hyd airport though traffic is between 10 -12 million passengers now and is close to saturation point.

GVK, the largest new owner of BIAL, has indicated that expansion of the current terminal is on the cards. Will probably start later this year or early next year. Subsequent to which an iconic new terminal and other aesthetic enhancements (which was a major heartburn for many aviation enthusiasts) will be executed. Considering that GVK is probably building one of the most beautiful airport terminals at MIAL Mumbai - we all have high hopes for the future of BIAL.

BIAL was always just about to manage dealing with traffic requirements from day one. The aviation slump the last 2 years actually came as a boon and Zurich airports one of the main partners withdrew after recovering their handsome returns. Therefore they logically didnt want to to comit further to any expensive upgrades due to an absence of long term commitment.

Being the first Private Public Partnership model greenfield airport in India (Cochin was first but was largely an NRI initiative) there was a lot of red tape to overcome - not to mention political interference. The saga perhaps took 10 long years to fructify during which a number of front runners including Tata and Changi airport withdrew, some out of sheer frustration. A lot of palms were greased in fact some claim up to 1/2 to 2/3rd of the investment went this way which is why the older designs of the terminal was frozen and not upgraded aesthetically lest it be delayed further due to awaiting delayed re approval.

HIAL had the benefit of starting construction a bit later after all the basic ground rules and the learning curve of BIAL was in place which is why they were able to build an aesthically newer generation and functionally efficient airport. And they finished earlier. But must also add that both HAIL and BIAL have recieved has been corroborated by the flying public and richly deserved. BIAL is reputed to score very high if not higher on efficiency.

Looking at the current scenario BIAL seems to be in the capable and accomplished hands of GVK and should go places.

me111993 · Member Joined: 04 Sep 2009 Posts: 3225 Location: MAA/AMD

RKRamesh · Member Joined: 20 Feb 2010 Posts: 165

saif.747 · Member Joined: 03 Jul 2010 Posts: 39

amazing TR!! well done Very Happy

me111993 · Member Joined: 04 Sep 2009 Posts: 3225 Location: MAA/AMD