Hi all, In this trip I will be taking one of Indigo's ATR from Tuticorin to Chennai. Tuticorin Airport is one of the smallest Airport in India but operates daily 6 flights a day with 4 from indigo and 2 from spicejet. Bangalore is recently added to its connectivity list. Since the Airport is very small decided to arrive just an hour before departure.
Check In
Check in inside tuticorin Airport is plain simple the whole hall is very small and finished my formalities in 5 mins. Security was called in 45mins before departure
The Terminal is just too small, and still this Airport handles around 20000 passengers a month. I seriously hope expansion plans kicks off immediately.
Departure Terminal
Inbound flight arrived very early and so pilots were had small walk outside. By 7.15AM Boarding started promptly.
Waiting Area inside Departure Hall
Indigo 6E 7184
Tuticorin (TCR) – Chennai (MAA)
Depart: 08:00AM
Arrive: 9:30AM
Duration: 1hr30Mins
Aircraft: ATR 72-600
Seat: 17F (Economy Class)
Registration: VT-IYY (Just 20 Days old Brand New)
Date: 13-10-2019
The Seat
Once onboard, I settled into my seat near the window. It was a brand new flight, Seats are standard ATR type with good legroom. One thing that caught my eye was the meal tray which is unbelievably small it can just barely hold a meal :(.
Our Flight and Tuticorin ATC tower
Cabin was fresh as it was a brand new ATR
Really Good Leg room
The seatback had no IFE's and the seat pocket had Safety card and magazine. We pushed back on-time. Take off is straightforward and today we departed from the west side towards tuticorin coast, and in no time we were airborne towards Chennai.
It was raining like hell the previous days, luckily today didn't face any disruption and city looked absolutely green and beautiful. We crossed via tuticorin port and then the salt pans.
Buy On Board Food
Service started 15mins after departure and I had my preordered NON Veg meal delivered. It had a chicken sandwich and an badam drink which was just overflavoured with some powder I'm not sure. Sandwich tasted good, the meal tray was able to just hold this sandwich.
That Tray Table was too small :(
6E Magazine
Safety Card ATR 72-600
Landing
After an hour our flight was above pondicherry and soon we started our descent, weather was just lovely with clear skies and blue seas visible. Touchdown smooth and got parked in remote gate.
Marina Beach
Kathipara Flyover
Air China 747-8 was parked along with 9W B777 and SG 737 Max
Etihad A320, Sri Lankan A330 and Emirates B777 in International Terminal
Jumbo Jet SQ 747-400F cargo
Domestic Terminal
Great to see a high quality product on offer to and from the smaller Airports in Tamil Nadu
6E as seems to have done a pretty good job once again!
Finally Turboprops are gaining popularity in the Indian Subcontinent as back in the day in South India people were pretty frustrated at they always complain among themselves saying "Vimanam Rompa Cinna " when boarding
Personally never experienced a rear cabin wing-view on a turboprop, in my case I do prefer sitting at the forward cabin to catch the props in action :)
Great to see your TR on YouTube - Became your 199th Subscriber as I too publish all my content on the same platform.
Love to see more enthusiasts getting involved, as this has lead to most Indian Carriers (excluding SG) becoming "camera friendly" over the past year or so
Good Luck and welcome to the field :)
Ha Ha, Thanks for the comments. Initially, even I hated Turboprops at first mostly due to their increased runtime when compared with Jet engines. If Indigo opted for Bombardier Q400 it would have been awesome as I feel them much more superior to ATR. And great to hear you liked the video.
Nice report - it is the first that I have seen of Tuticorin. Seems like everything was relaxed, compared to the mad rush at metros. Those trays are incredibly small, wow!
Interesting to see the Air China 747-8 at MAA - what happened there?!
Last month Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Chennai for meeting PM of India. 2 Air China 747 arrived Chennai carrying presidential vehicle and his security guards.
Hi TravelXperiance, very nice report! There has definitely been a lot of progress made with props these past few years. I used to hate getting on a prop, but I don't mind at all with a newer ATR (I'm slightly biased since ATR props are made near my home town in France ?).
The cabin looks great and it looks like the 6E B.O.B. menu has some decent options. Nice shots on arrival.
Thanks for sharing!
Yes, ATR has improved a lot especially with relation to cabin noise. Earlier days it was too noisy. Thanks for reading!!!