It has been a rough three months in India as many of you must be aware, there is no-one I know who hasn’t lost a friend or family member to this brutal second wave. A mix of an irresponsible public and governmental incompetence at every level led to a truly terrifying time for many people. And while it really isn’t fully over, I know people who were hospitalised two-three weeks ago and who haven’t made it. On a personal note, I’ve lost a few friends, but immediate family are safe and while the older folks have been fully vaccinated with the Astra-Zeneca shot, my wife and I have received our first dose.

That said, as June came to an end I figured that I can’t stay home anymore and have to get back to life and proper work, which involves reviewing cars. And as India’s automotive industry also began to restart, a couple of drives came up. One near Delhi and the very next day, a drive near Mumbai. My wife and baby joined me at the resort near Delhi and she dropped me off at the airport for me to begin my journey to Mumbai on June 21. This was my first flight since March 22, and my first visit to Mumbai since December 2019. Not that I planned to go and visit any friends.

When I told folks I’d be flying, many of them asked me to tell me about my experience since many of them planned to restart air travel in the next few weeks. In fact, there were so many requests that I decided to make a short video of my experience for YouTube. Do take a watch to look at empty airports (lots of parked planes on the BOM airside and a couple of 9W 777’s at the end)

https://youtu.be/svrcBKecjyU

(Do take a watch, and let me know your thoughts)

Somehow I could not check-in at the self check-in kiosks outside the terminal, so proceeded to the check-in counters, Vistara’s domestic counters remain at the extreme left of the terminal in Row A. There was barely a line, but holding Silver status, as Vistara has extended the validity of status holders, I went to the Premium Economy counter, and got a physical boarding pass, had my RT-PCR test checked (you need a RT-PCR negative report done in the past 48 hours to enter the state of Maharashtra) and proceeded to security.

Honestly, I have never had a more surreal experience at security in Delhi flying as a working professional. There were no lines whatsoever and I could easily take out my laptop without the need to jostle for trays. It did feel bizarre though that there were none of those less frequent flyers arguing with the security staff about liquids and all. After less than a couple of minutes and with no stamping of my boarding pass as bigger Indian airports have done away with that requirement, I was airside.

The shopping mall which doubles as an airport terminal was, well very empty indeed for a weekday afternoon, I didn’t head to the food court as I might have done in the past, walking straight to the Starbucks at the start of the domestic concourse, in fact, I didn’t go to the main store, ordering instead from a remote kiosk. One reason for that was the fact that the American Express lounge was shut and earlier I might have grabbed a coffee there. The Vistara lounge, I believe is also closed and even then I didn’t have the time to walk down to those gates. This flight was operating from the western side of the concourse where it is usually just Air India. In fact, by the time I got to my gate, boarding had begun over an hour before scheduled take-off much to my surprise. Another check of my RT-PCR test later, I grabbed the faceshield, mask and small bottle of sanitizer that airlines hand out these days and proceeded to board the plane.


Emptier Departure boards
Lots of parked AI birds at DEL

My ride for UK 933 today was VT-TGG, one of the six 737-800’s that Vistara acquired after Jet Airways’ collapse. This was the former VT-JFS on which I had flown many times before. I was surprised that Vistara was operating these older planes, this was a 14-year old 737-800 albeit with the sky interior. Vistara has enough brand-spanking new A320neo’s and even newer A321neo’s in their fleet. I guess the lease on these planes was still ongoing and the thought process must’ve been that since Vistara had painted the planes, they might as well use them. TGG had been operating the UK933/UK940 combo to and from Mumbai. I shuffled down to my seat and proceed to receive a message from Go Air. I had been scheduled to take G8 329 back from Mumbai at 1900 the next day, but Go Air rescheduled my flight by 13 hours. At 0600 in the morning! The morning I was supposed to do what I was going to Mumbai for. A frantic series of calls were made between me and my host, and I got myself booked on UK940 at 1945 the next morning.

Load was impressive for this flight. Keep in mind, Vistara which operated 11 daily return flights between India’s two largest metropolitan areas was down to just four daily rotations. One morning, one afternoon and a couple of evening flights. This flight seemed full with families, and load was an impressive 80% plus. This meant I didn’t have the middle next to me empty and while Vistara allows members of a group seated across a row of three to have the person in the middle not wear a PPE kit, in this case the guy next to me was kitted out in Vistara’s blue-coloured PPE kit and wearing his face-shield.

Indigo at the domestic side of T3!

I was surprised at the load, and even more surprised when we pushed back at 1525, five minutes before our scheduled departure. In fact, with a short taxi to the threshold of runway 11, DEL does easterly operations a lot as the monsoons approach, we were airborne in five minutes. I could clearly see the construction work on the ‘flyover’ taxiways over the main approach road to T3, the work on the new parallel runway, which looked to be nearing completion as well as the work on the revamp of T1 was also carrying on. Delhi Airport is a major infrastructure project and as such had all the requisite permissions to carry on work during the worst of the second-wave, most construction workers getting ‘frontline worker’ tags and being vaccinated before the general public. Honestly, while I know that some people might have an issue with that, I believe this is a great time to get a lot of this work done. Even if traffic doesn’t recover quickly in 2021, things should be back to some semblance of normal in 2022 once India completes vaccinating a bulk of her population, which given that there are 1.3 billion of us will be a masterpiece of logistics.
You can see some construction at DEL behind the wing

We took off, and made a quick and sharp right turn to fly over the booming city of Gurugram before a quick climb to FL380 and above the monsoon clouds. It was a beautiful azure sky, and the winglet and the rising moon made for a great picture. Pro Tip: Don’t sit on the sunny side of the aircraft during an Indian summer! With a one-year old at home, and the Euro championships going on which meant very late nights and barely 4-5 hours of sleep regularly, I took the chance to catch up on some sleep. But I was woken up when Vistara commenced a snack service. I liked that touch but a snack service on a packed flight during these times? I know the wave has subsided but basically encouraging passengers to pull their masks down? I know many of us miss decent service onboard airlines and services have restarted in some countries, but India? And maybe I would have overlooked this had the ‘snack’ been edible. A potato roll? Bleh!

The moon showed up for my first flight in 90 days
Ugh!

The flight took just over 100 minutes, unheard of in 2019 when the traffic meant that some flights between Delhi and Mumbai took close to three hours at times. No loops around Mumbai and a straight-in approach into rather cloudy Mumbai although it did clear up closer to the airport. I got a great view of the remote stands where a 9W A330 gave company to a SpiceJet MAX and some A320’s from India’s other airlines. The Air India hangers had a few 747’s resting but a load of 77W’s and 788’s as well. As we pulled off, the T1 apron was filled with planes parked up, including Indigo’s latest A321NX’s.

Lots of parked planes
The AI hangers are full!


We parked at a remorse stand and while the crew tried to enforce row-by-row deplaning, the process was slightly chaotic as some passengers will always want to be out of a plane the second the door opens, even if they’re seated in the last row. Even though we were at a remote stand, new rules in place meant only the forward door was to be used to prevent passengers milling about on the tarmac. And no need to try and fit 150+ passengers in just three buses, I think five buses were used. We had a five minute journey, past some old Jet Airways 77W’s, one with a couple of guards sitting by the undercarriage. I guess to prevent creditors from running off with the plane, although Jet is currently in bankruptcy court and getting planes out of India isn’t ‘that’ easy.

Will this bird fly again? Two guards under the right bogey are guarding it!

Once we arrived, since I had no luggage I proceeded straight out. But not before a slightly disorganised check of my RT-PCR test. This could be better managed, my test was done at a proper lab with a QR code that was linked to my national ID (Adhaar). This could all have been checked digitally, but I got a guy who was more interested in the date of my test rather than the result. Truth be told, I could have easily fudged by test report by using an earlier test and photoshopping a new date with how my test was scrutinised. I’d never do that, but someone could!

The next day after my drive of the new Skoda Kushaq, the Czech company’s new small SUV for the Indian market based on the MQB-A0 platform - you can watch that review video on my channel also if you’d like. I went to run an errand for my wife who wanted chocolate from a very specific shop in Mumbai, which was in Bandra, close to the airport. I was at the airport by 1800 for my 1945 flight. I’d checked-in earlier and noticed an equipment change to an A320. Because I could do OLCI and had logged-in to Vistara’s mobile application, I could choose an exit row window. And although it was a late-evening departure June 22 is midsummer, so I’d catch the last rays of the sunset. Monsoon sunsets after one takes off from Mumbai are particularly pretty, the sunlight refracts off the water-borne clouds to make a kaleidoscope of colours, so sitting on the west-facing side for the flight made sense.

Why I went to Mumbai, I drove down to the northern Konkan coast - near Kashid beach to be precise!

While I had a mobile pass this time on Apple Wallet that is now allowed at major Indian airports for domestic travel, I went to the counters to check if that was still the case. The agent issued me a physical boarding pass when I was there. Again, no queues whatsoever and I’ve never seen Mumbai’s beautiful check-in hall so empty. The green wall and the koi pond next to the escalators down to the security checkpoint still looked pretty and security was even faster than Delhi. With time to spare, I stopped for a beer at one of the bars in the domestic concourse, one of the only places I could take my mask off, although there was no-one near me.
For a weekday evening this was empty!

UK 940 was parked at one of the gates close to the central hub at Mumbai’s T2, Mumbai using a multi-floor architecture to separate international and domestic flyers (akin to Munich) rather than separate (sides) terminals like Delhi. This meant I could not really go through the parts of Mumbai terminal’s beautiful (but controversial, that is another story) art pieces. Again, boarding had begun over an hour before the flight and I was inside quickly. Load was 50% at best, something unbelievable for an evening flight between Mumbai and Delhi. This flight was mainly business travellers, with a few families interspersed in between, a sign that corporate travel is reopening slowly but surely. Thankfully, an empty middle seat this time.

VT-TNI was operating the flight, an aircraft I had previously flown on the same sector back in mid-2019. Vistara bathes their cabin in their signature aubergine colour which is nicer than it sounds, but the lights were dimmed for take-off. Again, in something unheard of for Mumbai in the evening, we pushed back ten minutes early and there was no line of planes waiting to take-off from runway 27. After holding for half a minute for a landing Spicejet 737, we were off. The Western Express Highway appeared packed, but with Mumbai’s suburban trains running with reduced frequency and fewer passengers (only government and public-sector staff).
The WEH is packed!

I did catch the sunset I wanted to, just about, a week later and I might not have. There was service on this flight as well, a godawful aloo tikki (potato) hotdog. Again, I’d like to reiterate I’m not sure of service starting just yet and I know Vistara wants to mark themselves out of the crowd, and yes I will keep giving them my patronage but if you must serve something make it halfway decent at least.

Venus showed up for my return
Double ugh! Only bite I took!

Again, a short flight between Delhi and Mumbai but longer than the last flight, yet times I’ve not experienced since I was a school student. We did travel around some bumpy patches, par for the course during the monsoons. I got some shuteye again on this flight while keeping an eye on progress on Vistara World’s flight tracker. This is a BYOD IFE application. We flew at FL370 for this flight but had a straight-in approach to Delhi, this time onto runway 29 without the wide looping turn over the distant suburbs of Greater Noida.

A screengrab of Vistara World's moving map from UK 933, you don't need an app really just a browser

Delhi, unlike Mumbai does not require RT-PCR tests for arriving passengers although some passengers can be made to take a test randomly (or so I’m told). I met a friend on the bus who was travelling back to Delhi with her two sons because her father had just been hospitalised for post-Covid complications. A reminder that this pandemic and its aftereffects are far from over.

All said and done, I’m glad I flew. I think it was time for us to bite the bullet and if we fly with precautions we can all stay safe. There could be more hand-sanitizer points after security at both airports, between checks of RT-PCR tests if they are required for inter-state travel and maybe no service right now. I know the authorities are talking of a third wave in India that could be as devastating as the second wave, but with over 300 million vaccinations done in India until now, and the likelihood that we will touch 500 million by July and at least 20% fully-vaccinated by August, things can only look up unless of course this new ‘Delta Plus’ variant that is being spoken of strikes hard even though I expect everyone to be better prepared this time.

I don’t think I’ll be back to the days of weekly flights or even international travel 4-5 times a year, I don’t foresee work-related intercontinental travel until mid-2022, while travel to Arabian countries and South-East Asian countries for tourism might open up in a few months for fully-vaccinated folks. Do watch the video, if you’d like and do leave your thoughts and comments on this report. My first in a very long while and I hope the next one will not take so long. I'll put a post with more pictures on my blog at https://presstalk.wordpress.com

Thank you for an another great TR! I am asking my self, if the B737 of ex Jet really offer the same standard and comfort as the A320 of Vistara? AFAIK the B737-800 is not equipped with Premium Eco, nor WiFi-Internet - isn't it?! Does the B737-800 offer any IFE, like PTV?!

Hopefully we will see more TR from you soon...

Vistara 737's do not have PE, and onboard internet-connectivity isn't there but both the 737's and the A320 have Vistara World, one reason being that these were all JetScreen equipped planes when they were with Jet.

A nice read of a TR on the busiest Indian domestic route, during pandemic times.
It must have been a dream to check-in at T3 DEL with such low traffic. Though this will be short-lived as when traffic rebounds the craze will be back.
Just pre-pandemic, it was a nightmare to go through T3, in terms of wait time in long queues. I remember having to wait for long just to even enter the terminal building, then the long slow wait to get to check in counters, and then the serpentine queues for security. I much preferred the odd T2 at DEL, as it was least crowded of the three and easiest to navigate and check-in. And that mean't picking GoAir, as they were the only ones with all ops there. The others had the confusing split-ops.

Regarding the meals on your flight, I thought govt had not permitted airlines to offer meals on flights <2hrs. Unless that has changed.
Anyways, I have noticed Vistara offers their Y no-meal fare at a much discounted rate vs the with meal fare. Difference goes upto ₹700 on avg. I wonder what % of the avg flyer (excluding the corporate/business travelers) would be booking the meal fare for such a small portion of meal. In that case, their Y would be selling mostly like an LCC.

In nearly 35 years of flying into and out of Mumbai, I have never not been in a queue. This must be something

Subramanian

So folks I made a video of the return trip as well, not a lengthy one, just 6 minutes, including a video of my landing in Mumbai I didn't put in the first trip report. Take a look-see
https://youtu.be/T4KuzAcpnhA