India by plane · India by plane
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India by plane
India by plane
The major points of entry are Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Bengaluru. The airports at these cities are either new or undergoing development. Delhi has unveiled its brand new international Terminal 3 in time for the 2010 Commonwealth Games & Bangalore launched its new airport in 2008. There are many nonstop, direct & connecting choices to these cities from Europe, North America, Middle East & Australia. Africa is also connected to Delhi & Mumbai.
For secondary points of entry to India, consider Hyderabad, Goa, Kolkata or the Malabar coast. There are many connections to the Malabar coast region to cities like Kochi, Kozhikode & Thiruvananthapuram from the Middle East. Most of the major Middle Eastern carriers offer one stop connections to the coast from their Gulf hubs. Hyderabad recently inaugurated its new airport, Rajiv Gandhi International & is currently served by major airlines British Airways, Emirates, Etihad, Lufthansa, Qatar Airways & Thai Airways. Goa is a favourite European tourist destination & thus is connected by many European charter operators like Condor, Edelweiss, Monarch Airlines, Thomas Cook Airlines & Thomson Airways. Kolkata is currently served by Emirates, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines & Thai Airways.
India has homegrown international airlines like Air India (the merged airline formed by merging Air India and Indian Airlines). These provide good connectivity within the country. In recent years, the government has allowed Indian private airlines like Jet Airways and Kingfisher to go international. There are daily flights to major hubs around the world from Delhi & Mumbai.
Air India often offers the lowest rates for long haul flights to India. In recent years, it has steadily improved and had even been invited to join the Star Alliance, but there is still some ways to go until it can be considered world-class. Air India suffers from inconsistent customer service & its online booking / telephone reservations facilities are sub-standard.
From the United States, Continental Airlines offers nonstop daily service from Newark Airport to Delhi and Mumbai; Air India offers daily non-stop service to Delhi from JFK and ORD and Mumbai from EWR. American Airlines offers nonstop daily service from Chicago to Delhi. Various European airlines offer connecting service through their European hubs from most major US cities and various Asian airlines offer connecting service from West Coast cities to India through their Asian hubs. Jet Airways also flies from New York to Delhi, Mumbai, and Chennai via Brussels.
Entries from Europe and Northern America are possible using many European airlines such as Lufthansa , Finnair , British Airways , KLM Royal Dutch Airlines , Air France and Virgin Atlantic . For long-term visitors (3-12 months), Swiss airlines often have good deals from Switzerland with connecting flights from major European and some American cities as well.
To save on tickets, consider connecting via Gulf countries, by Air Arabia (Sharjah-based low cost carrier having some connections in Europe), Etihad (especially if you need one-way ticket or going back to Europe from another Asian country) via Abu Dhabi, as well as Emirates via Dubai or Qatar airways via Doha. Obviously, these airlines are also the easiest way to come from the Gulf countries themselves, along with Air India and Air India Express.
From East Asia and Australia, Singapore (which is served by Air India, it's low-cost subsidiary Air India Express , Jet Airways, as well as Singapore Airlines , it's subsidiary Silk Air and low-cost subsidiary Tiger Airways ) has arguably the best connections to India with flights to all the major cities and many smaller ones. As about the cheap way from South-East Asia or vice versa, Malaysian low-cost carrier AirAsia is usually the best choice (if booked well in advance, one-way ticket price is normally below $100, sometimes being less than $50, they have connections from China, Australia and most of South-East Asian countries). They fly from Kuala Lumpur into New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Kochi and Tiruchirapalli. If you're going from/to Thailand, Air India Express flies from Chennai and Kolkata to Bangkok. Jet Airways, Air India and Thai Airways fly from there to the wider range of Indian cities also. Most Recently, Silk Air started its direct flights from Singapore to Hyderabad as well. Recently, IndiGo, an Indian low-cost-carrier, has started service to Singapore, Bangkok, Dubai, and Muscat.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about India
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in India - updated Apr 2024
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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.