Hello everyone! This is my very first trip report on the forum. Been reading experiences of people here since eternity and finally decided to write one. Please give any feedback for the same.
This is a trip I made from the tourist destination of Udaipur to Delhi to Dehradun in December 2021. This report would be of the first sector UDR-DEL. Udaipur, also called the City of Lakes, is a city in Rajasthan on the foothills of the Aravallis. With greenery, mountains and plenty of lakes around, it's one of the most scenic places in India. Even the James Bond Film, Octupussy was shot here.
Flight: AI472
Aircraft: A321, VT-PPL
My 50th flight overall, 40th flight on Air India (Ya I have travelled via it a lot xD)
My Flight was scheduled at 1510, and left for the airport at around noon. The airport is a bit far away from the city but mostly it is a highway with minimal traffic. Was at the airport in about 35 mins. As I was just getting off my cab, Vistara A320 to Delhi just took off.
Winter time meant long queues at the airport entrance, but looking at the crowd, another queue just started and I got lucky to be one of the first ones to be at the front, otherwise it would have been a nightmare.
After check in went to security which was normal. My flight would depart from gate 3 which was an aerobridge, so quickly headed up the escalator for some plane spotting.
VT-TNJ from Mumbai and headed back to Mumbai.
VT-SLF coming from Kolkata via Jaipur and going to Delhi. This plane would again come to Udaipur from Delhi to do the UDR-JAI-CCU flight
VT-SLF delayed by an hr as SG340
Meanwhile the “On time is a wonderful thing” force gettīng its ground handling unit ready for the flight thats not even there at the airport yet.
VT-TNJ off to Mumbai
VT-TQD coming from Delhi as UK627. The same aircraft will be going to Delhi as UK628.
VT-SLF off to Delhi
VT-PPL coming from Delhi as AI471. My ride today to Delhi
So the airport has a single runway 08/26 with no parallel taxiway. The apron is near the east side of the runway, meaning that planes landing on runway 26 can have an option to brake to their max and just exit the runway onto the apron directly.
This was the case for most of the airplanes but the AI A321 decided to spare the passengers with some very hard braking and spend some more fuel to use the full runway, take a u turn at the end of the runway and taxi to the apron.
The airport map showing the runway. Pic courtesy Google Maps
AI coming to the gate after a comparatively longer taxi from the end of the runway
VT- IZN coming from Delhi as 6E-2274. And would be racing against SpiceJet (already departed though), Vistara and Air India back to Delhi as 6E2012.
VT-IZN gating beside the Air India a321. IndiGo's ground handling unit spurs quickly into action.
Vistara parked on the other side of AI aircraft
oh come on xDD!!
While I was standing for boarding, another IndiGo aircraft VT-ITF landed as 6E6307 from Hyderabad. This will fly back to HYD as 6E6308. Interestingly. VT-ITF started its day very early in the morning at 4:40am on the HYD-PNQ flight. After PNQ-HYD-IXR-HYD, its finally in UDR but thats not it. It would continue on UDR-HYD-CJB-BLR-BOM before calling it a day. 9 flights on a single day. Wow!!
Quickly boarded my aircraft which was equipped with 170 economy and 12 business class seats. The economy section with the old economy seats which have better padding and are not ‘slimline’.
Old is Gold? Great amount of leg space.
UK628 Pushing back for Delhi.
VT-IZN pushing back for its flight to Delhi, even when it landed after the AI aircraft. Looks like a win for the “Ground Force” (Thats what 6E calls its ground handling unit). Though AI has an a321 to fill, so have to give some consideration to them as well. Actually no, it has a total of 182 seats vs 180/186 seats on 6E, not much of a difference. PS The scheduled takeoff for AI was 310pm whereas for IndiGo was 330pm
Sunkissed? Vistara off to Delhi.
While we waited to enter the runway, the Indigo plane departed to Delhi and an AI plane came in from Mumbai.
Now if you might have taken a careful look, all take offs were happening on runway 08. That meant going on a long taxi to the opposite end of the runway to start the take off roll. Well who would like to do that. But the planes were landing on Runway 08 back to back and this meant the take off needed to be done in that direction only, for safety reasons.
Though we got really lucky and probably the rush hour had just finished with the arrival for AI flight from Mumbai. That means we were headed to use the runway 26 xD. Did give me a sense of excitement.
After a short taxi we started our take off roll and were in the air in no time.
Air India from Mumbai.
Shortly after takeoff, the snacks service commenced. It included a veg puff and a fruit juice. It was Okayish to have, not as bad as just the coffee and biscuit that I had in the same sector in 2015.
The route gave some great views of the Rajasthani landscape, mountains, rivers and Ajmer airport(not in the picture).
While cruising we took a detour right turn before turning back to on our way to Delhi. Might be done to maintain gap from a nearby aircraft?
Our flight path (P.C. Flightradar24)
V/S Indigo’s flight path which took off just some time before us. (P.C. Flightradar24)
Soon it was time to descend into Delhi’s runway 29, which seemed too busy handling traffic. As such we were quite behind in the queue for arrivals and flew considerably east before making a U turn and finally landing.
Our rather long descend into delhi. (P.C. Flightradar24)
I loved the descent as it gave me an excellent view of the planes landing as we were flying eastwards.
As we just landed, VT SLF (the SpiceJet plane i spotted in Udaipur) was on its way back to Udaipur.
After getting off the plane we were out to take our luggage. Christmas feels and decorations at the airport.
Overall it was a nice flying experience with the government owned Air India. I will be posting the DEL-DED flight on Alliance Air soon