Flying Cheaper Skies

Changing Face of Flying

Am enroute to Hyderabad today. Sitting at the airport, one can see how
things have changed since the airline industry has opened up. There is
an eclectic mix of people, every seat in the lounge is taken, attire
is far more casual than business, and people are younger. Yes, queues
are gargantuan though ,and the Bangalore airport, poorly structured
as it already is, groans under the additional traffic. Differently hued
airline uniforms - the in your face Kingfisher Red and Deccan yellow
, and the more sedate blues of Jet and Indigo teams seem to add visual
texture . The many baggage check ins, skulking in various corners trip
you up. In the matrix of window seats , boarding cards, swish and
bustle, the impersonal security check, rolling trolleys , and an
occasional familiar face, is the underlying hummmm and vroom-vroom of
a caged monster. One must remember, this is serious business, aviation
technology, large aluminium birds and an army of people that make sure
this fragile metal mesh, takes off to friendly skies , remains there
and lands on hard ground as it should.

Its my second Air Deccan flight. Timings are good- 7/730am that
allows you to reach in time for a 930 am meeting . Jet was at 0605 am !
One to Bby was excellent, large seats ,as it was an Airbus. And on
time. This one to Hyderabad is tiny, an ATR , with 2*2 seats. Cramped,
but clean, comfortable. Every seat taken. Polite smiling crew, you can buy a coffee and
cheese sandwich (Coffee Day, so quite decent) . You can buy and bid (
aw, COME on!!) for bags, sunglasses, wallets et al.

I remember flying both Ryan Air and Easy Jet while on a course in UK,
and it was cheap and such fun. Functional, free seating, on time, no
frills. 14 pounds to Paris, can you imagine! And we are seeing low
cost for the last 3 years here and its working well ! I look at the
gujarati family of 4 , in front of me- they packed their own burgers,
and first flight or not, they are having a blast.

The heart of this is internet availability, and comfort with booking
online. I booked through cleartrip.com rather than on an individual
site, and it was really easy,seemed to be efficient ecommerce tools
in place ..

I booked three days ago online, and my tickets cost me under Rs 4000
return, inclusive of taxes (the taxes were a whopping 2300 by the way- I
wonder why its so much ). Affordable travel anyway.

I think we've arrived.