Review of Air India flight from Kolkata to New Delhi in Economy

I needed to get to Delhi to take an Air Astana flight to Almaty on the 2nd - the details of how that came about will be in the next flight report.
Excluding my hated IndiGo, there were three options not leaving too early from Kolkata but also getting into Delhi early enough for a good night's sleep before flying onward.

There were some flights on the 2nd morning that would arrive in time to self transfer but that would have been unnecessarily tight.
I'd have preferred to fly earlier in the afternoon but there wasn't really anything then. SpiceJet was the earliest in my time frame, but when I checked the flight's performance, the earliest it landed in Delhi was two hours behind schedule, and it was up to about 7.5 hours late (over 8 hours late departing). It's extraordinary that they maintain that schedule, a delay every day that's generally longer than the duration of the flight. This is bad even for an airline somewhat known for delays - at least their morning flight from CCU was on time every day.

Anyway, with that out of the way there was Air India and Akasa. I was pretty bored of Air India, already had been before the last quick domestic trip with them in February, but they were a little earlier and of course have better service. After adding on costs for an extra 5kgs of check-in - both give 15kgs free - the price was pretty much the same and Air India it was.

With the FLYAI promo code the final price was ₹7343, around $79, for a slightly higher fare including a 20kg check-in.

The flight had been an hour late the day before my travel and three hours late the day before, after fairly strong punctuality earlier on. The plane - same one which had operated the last two days - started this day running an hour behind schedule. That delay extended by another half hour before coming down as the day continued.
They seemed to be scheduling very short turnarounds that were around half the time actually needed I guess with the assumption that it would work out alright as they'd make back time in the air on both ends of each stop. Unfortunately sometimes that doesn't happen - though usually it does and their general on time performance is reasonably good - and thus there are delays.

Anyway, on to the flight. By the way, this probably won't be the most detailed review as I've done a lot of these short AI runs already.

 It was a hot and sunny day and thankfully it was a short wait for the document check outside the airport though still quite sunny inside the terminal.
Air India was at the end of the domestic area, and from the direction I came in economy was on other side of business/premium economy. 

There wasn't any Air India signage on the screens.

It was extremely early for the flight and the line was short. Air India has cut a lot of their Kolkata flights as well as former Vistara ones, so there wasn't much activity at this time of day with Air India.
I checked the plane status and it had left Delhi late after series of late flights but was surprisingly on track to arrive in Kolkata on time.
Check in was pretty slow, as was security, and there were some issues with the bags, but by the time I was through it was still quite early. I went over to the food court and got a sandwich as I had a few trips ago, something I started to regret as it took around half an hour.
It was decent in the end if not worth the wait.

Boarding started a bit over half an hour late, just a few minutes after I was done eating. It was a bit chaotic: there were zones with boarding from the rear but not strongly enforced it seemed.
And there's today's plane, VT-RIO, a 1.8 year old A320neo. It never flew for the old Air India or Vistara.

There was a bottleneck on the way down to the plane, but thankfully not as slow as it usually tends to be - and there was AC all the way through.

The seats were mostly full so I couldn't get great pictures, but there were still a couple of empty rows.

And my own seat - no headrests on these seats.

With the new A320s, there are USB-A charging ports at every seat along with device holders. 

Plus lights and air vents.

My seat was missing the magazine, sadly - it's always interesting. There was a sickness bag, safety card, and a very battered IFE information card, all in a plastic packet.

The plane was new and still in good condition.
Everyone worked hard and we actually managed to push back pretty much on time.

We passed exactly zero picture-worthy aircraft on the ground. There had been an Emirates 777 coming in as I was walking to the gate, but it was too far away and too dark outside to get a picture. I did see it from the air again, though it won't be clearly visible in this picture.

Entertainment streaming to personal devices became available on takeoff. This is just a small section of their total content.

The selection seems to have been updated since my flights with Air India in February. Decent selection, though the wi-fi (just for the entertainment, no internet access) kept cutting out during the flight.
Meal service began not too long after we got into the air, with special meals, like mine, being served first.

If you look at the left side of this picture there's a little card there. Yes, there was an ad in the meal.

On to the actual food.

The main was pretty good (better than it looks). The dessert was also good, though a bit dry, while the breadroll was a little cold and also quite dry. There wasn't much of the cheese spread thing so I didn't finish it.
The crew were impressive with how fast they cleared the tray, it was nice to have mine gone even before they started collecting the regular trays.
Air India doesn't have a full beverage service in domestic economy, offering tea, coffee and water. I got water. 

There was a line for the lavatory and it was dirty inside, though the next one was being cleaned at the same time.
Cabin view:

Before too long, we were nearing Mumbai.

The entertainment stopped during the descent.
Lots of international planes on the ground in BOM. They included American Airlines, Air China (behind AA), United, Thai, Singapore Airlines, British Airways, both Bhutanese carriers, Emirates, Gulf Air and Cathay Pacific.

We parked at a remote stand, and passengers were quick to line up in the aisle before the doors opened.

Thank you, VT-RIO.

The arrivals area reminded me a bit of Tunis (which isn't a compliment).
They weren't kidding about the low ceilings. I have a feeling a few people bump their heads every day.

Definitely not quite as nice as other parts of Delhi airport.

Wasn't too long until bags came.

And then it was time to go to the hotel for a good night's sleep before Air Astana, with a nice view from the car park.

Thanks for reading.