Whenever I visit India, I always have to fly from New Delhi or Mumbai to Patna, as most of my family is based in Bihar. Unfortunately, until recently, the only airline servicing Patna was Indian Airlines. Over the past 15 years, I can honestly say that I have NEVER had a good experience with these clowns. Checkin at the Indian Airlines Terminal at Palam Airport is always a mess. Even though they seem to have enough counters open, the checkin area is always crowded, and the lines are always long. On a trip in 2000, my confirmed Delhi-Patna reservations were cancelled without my knowledge by the airline. In the end, I had to pay the ticket counter a bribe to let me go on standby for the flight. Luckily, there was still some availability and I was not stranded in Delhi. The biggest problem I have with Indian Airlines though, is their chronic lateness. I have NEVER, in the past 15 years, boarded an Indian Airlines flight that departed within 30 minutes of the scheduled time. Every single time I have flown Indian Airlines, my flights to and from Patna have been delayed between 3 and 6 hours (yes, thats right, 6 hour delays for a 1.5 hour flight). During these delays, Indian Airlines sometimes takes it upon itself to provide passengers with tiny cups of tea with a dried out ’’cheese sandwitch’’ and some stale pakoras. Upon (eventually)boarding the aircraft, I always find that is some ancient hand-me-down A310, many of which are 15+ years old. Seats are always worn, cramped, and occasionally dirty. Meal service is the one thing that I think Indian Airlines deserves a little (very little) respect for. At a time when on most American domestic routes one can only expect peanuts and soda, Indian Airlines always has served full meals, complete with a sugary rasgulla. The meals are not particularly delicious, but they are okay, and are basically standard airline fare. I can usually manage to eat a little on these flights. I have noticed, over the past few years, a slight increase in the quality of inflight service provided. Over the past few years I have seen an increase in professionalism among both the ground staff and the flight attendants. At the same time, I still belive that the flight attendants on Indian Airlines are still far below industry standards as far as their treatment of passengers is concerned (Though I do like their uniforms!). When all is said and done, I am glad that Sahara Airlines is providing service to Patna. I find that they are vastly superior to Indian Airlines in most aspects (though their fleet is pretty old too). Perhaps the added competition will make Indian Airlines improve the quality of their product. But, until then, I am only going to be flying Sahara.

No. of times flown on this Airlines:	Between 7 - 10
Class flown most frequently:	Economy Class