India airlines · Airlines in India
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Airlines in India
Airlines in India
At one time, domestic flights were the monopoly of the government-owned Indian Airlines, but things have changed dramatically and now there are quite a few competitors, with prices a traveller's delight. The main operators are:
Air India , India's state owned carrier. Formerly two carriers, Indian Airlines (domestic) and Air India (mainly international). These have merged in 2007, the airline is still in transition. Air India has the largest network in the country and provides excellent regional connectivity. Service is generally below any Western standards and on new aircraft which are being deployed on many metro routes personal televisions are provided in all classes. Will be joining Star Alliance in 2011. Air India also operates low-cost carrier Air India Express , which flies mainly on trunk routes and to international destinations in the Gulf and South-East Asia, and Air India Regional, which flies small aircraft to obscure places.
Go Air low cost which now offers additional products: Business class at economy fare (GoBusiness), Flexible travelling product (GoFlexi). Mostly flies from their Mumbai base.
IndiGo Airlines - another low cost airline, connecting around 20 major cities throughout the country. Their planes are new A320's purchased directly from Airbus a few years ago at most. As usually with low cost carriers, tickets should be purchased well in advance to get the best fares (more often than not under $100 one-way even for longer flights across the country).
Jet Airways , full service airline with very good coverage. Now services London (LHR) directly from Delhi and Mumbai and flights to/from Toronto and New York via Brussels. Their subsidiary Jetlite , formerly Air Sahara, operates as a value carrier; i.e. some food and beverages are given.
Kingfisher Airlines , full service, but with high fares. Their service is excellent. Kingfisher Red, formerly Air Deccan, was once India's largest low-cost carrier, but prices have increased since the Kingfisher takeover. Still handy for direct flights to small towns ignored by the majors. Same prices for foreigners and Indians.
SpiceJet , a third low cost airline, has fairly good network between bigger Indian cities as well as prices comparable to those of IndiGo. Their planes are similarly brand new, the main difference being these are B737-800's and -900's.
Regional airlines include Paramount Airways in South India and
Jagson Airlines and MDLR Airlines in North India.
Keep in mind, however, that outside of big cities coverage is poor. If you need to get to a small town, low-cost airlines other than Kingfisher Red won't help you. You may have to rely on Indian Airlines or Jet. Flying low-cost to a metro and taking a train is not a bad idea either.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about India
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India Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.