Kingfisher Red aircraft.
www.flickr.com user vm2827
I arrived back to Mumbai last night from a glorious trip to Wayanad in Kerala, and Coorg in Karnataka, to visit a couple of Mahindra Homestays (more about that later!).
To get to Wayanad, I flew from Mumbai to Calicut with JetLite. On the return journey from Coorg, I flew from Managlore to Mumbai with Kingfisher Red (previously Air Deccan, and the aircraft still showed the logo). They are the low cost carriers of Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines, respectively.
So how did these budget airlines perform? I got a few pleasant surprises. Both airlines offered me an exit row seat at check-in, without me even asking. That was a first! Kingfisher Red also served hot snacks to its passengers, which I also didn't expect from a budget airline. The limit for check-in baggage was 25 kilograms for both airlines. This is a recent improvement, increased from 15 kilograms.
However, there were some negatives. From what I could see, both planes offered minimal leg room -- which made me grateful for my exit row seat. While my morning flight with JetLite was on time, my evening flight with Kingfisher Red was delayed nearly an hour. This was due to the late arrival of the aircraft from Mumbai. JetLite staff were civil, but not cheery. Passenger baggage also took quite a while to appear on the carousel after the JetLite flight.
Given my overall experience, IndiGo still remains my favorite budget domestic airline in India.
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