Jan 26, 2006 11:48 PM
3934 Views
(Updated Feb 04, 2006 03:56 PM)
GO Air,
Way to go…..
Well.. I wanted to be at home for Christmas and a couple of weeks before Christmas GOAir started its flights in the southern India, connecting Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai.
There were some issues with the booking as my return ticket from Chennai to Hyderabad was not booked but the credit card was charged. Later the first flight.. 12th Dec 2005, was cancelled due to some technical issues.
Still I was keeping high hopes as I want to be at home for Christmas. Arrived at HYD Airport at 3.00 for the 4.10 PM Flight, In the Entry gate itself there was a lady from GOAir, who directed me to the check in counter. The Check in was smooth as I was carrying a small cabin baggage. They Insist on a Photo ID for verification. Later we moved to the Security Hold Area ( That’s how the waiting area is called in Hyderabad area). I was carrying a small Basket ball for my little nephew and asked to declare it by the CSIF people who were manning the Security.
We were waiting in the First floor for the flight to arrive from Bangalore. I was not sure till I saw the bigbird with a Blue tail in the runway. After some 15 Mins, we moved in to the Aircraft. It’s a Airbus 320 aircraft and to my amusement the flight is fully (Almost) booked. There were some issues as one old gentleman was denied entry to the Aircraft as His Laptop was not having the security cleared seal on a GOAir Tag. He was asked to go back to the security to get a seal. Could have been avoided.. Still security is the most important thing.. and I decided to check for the seal in the boarding airlines tag in my future flights.
The take off was delayed by some 20 mins as some Small private JET was landing.. May be some VIPs.. Unscheduled visit. The take off was smooth and eventless. We are served water in disposable cups! As Go Air was not serving / selling food at that time. Some candy would be better. I don’t understand why the Low cost carriers, can’t offer atleast candy free of cost.
The interior was with a blue tone. As the aircraft was a old one, some seats were with broken hand rests, sticking Bubblegum and so….
There was no Inflight magazines and no other way to kill time. There was 2 flight attendants and another male inflight manager. His job was reading the instructions thru microphone I guess… !
The flight was a smooth one with some nice view as the sun sets in the evening.. we were at Chennai at the scheduled time and No Aerobridge… An AirIndia bus took us to the terminal.
Some Suggestions:
Arrive early enough to face the long queue as some first time travelers tend to argue over the baggage allowance and the cost for it.
Keep some reading material as they don’t have an inflight magazine (Air Deccan has a nice magazine and LCD TV’s in long flights)
For GOAir,
Just keep the aircraft clean and neat and some inflight magazine or some news paper to be given on request may be helpful.
Not bad for a Lowcost Carrier, Though there were some short comings, in the initial days.. there is a scope for improvement. Way to GO.. Rated best in comparison to its peers.. AirDeccan & SpiceJet
