Avis du vol entre Mangalore et Bangalore en classe Economique avec Air India Express

After a wonderful weekend under the warm sun of Mangalore, it's time for me to head back to my place of residence, which will still be Bangalore for a few more weeks on this end of year 2023.

Introduction

I was craving calm and sea air after spending nearly a month and a half in the bustling megacity of Bangalore. They were forecasting typhoons on the eastern coast of India, with major flooding expected. So I decided to aim for the west coast, on the Arabian Sea side. I had already been to Kerala (the southern tip of India) a few weeks earlier, and we had plans to go to Goa the following weekend with my colleague… so I figured I’d go for something in between: the Karnataka coast.
Getting there takes about 8 hours by road or nearly 10 hours by train even though it's only about 400 km away, the ground transport infrastructure means you have to take your time. By plane, the trip takes roughly 50 minutes, and even booking a week in advance, prices remain affordable I paid €90 for a round trip. For scheduling reasons, I’ll fly there with Indigo and return with Air India Express, which will kindly be deploying one of its new Boeing 737 MAX-8s.

It’s worth noting that I had initially considered heading to this region on my first weekend, planning to fly with SpiceJet, which was supposed to operate the route with a Dash-8 Q400. In the end, the flights were canceled just days after they were supposed to begin, without ever actually starting.

Which gives us the following routing:

As is often the case with my Indian flight reports, this route is an exclusivity for the database. And in this case, it will be the first report departing from Mangalore Airport.

As for the route’s traffic, it's mainly operated by IndiGo, which was running at this time about four daily rotations on average. They have now jump to 7 daily flights. SpiceJet was originally supposed to operate a daily Q400 rotation during the winter season, but those flights never started. However, since November 2023, Air India Express has launched a full-scale offensive to compete with IndiGo on domestic routes and fill the gap left by GoAir and to a lesser extent, SpiceJet.

Departure at the end of the day from Mangalore

I was driven to the airport from my accommodation, which is located a few dozen kilometers to the north. Even though traffic is moving quite well this late afternoon, the journey will still take around 40 minutes. I made a small mistake when choosing my accommodation and ended up in a very, very untouristic area with a vast, seemingly endless beach but not much to do. If you're going to Mangalore, I recommend Udupi. It's a bit farther, but there’s more to see and do.
The access road is quite impressive, consisting of numerus steep turns that climb up to the plateau where the airport is located.

The airport is also grimly known for its "tabletop" runway configuration, particularly after the crash of Air India Express Flight 812 in 2010, which killed 158 people.

I arrive in front of the terminal several hours early, hoping to do a bit of plane spotting. Unfortunately for me, my search for a good spotting location catches the attention of the military guards stationed outside the airport. I’m subjected to a few questions about what I’m doing, where I’m going, where I work… In short, I quickly fall back in line and head toward the terminal, pretending I was just taking a photo of the landscape. So, dear fellow spotters, I doubt that plane spotting is a popular activity in India and even less likely to be well-regarded by the local authorities.
As with all my flights in India, an identity check is mandatory before entering the terminal, with armed soldiers equipped with long guns and armored vehicles stationed at the entrance. It must be said that there are regular threats of attacks on Indian flights. Here too, only passengers with valid tickets are allowed to enter.

As is often the case in medium and small airports, the baggage scanning takes place right at the entrance of the terminal and beware, each airline has its own scanner. Unfortunately for me, Air India Express only opens its check-in counters 3 hours before departure, which in my case means about an hour waiting in the landside area where there isn’t much to do.

I’m being a bit harsh there is actually a shop and a café in the area, though they mainly seem to serve airport employees. We witnessed a heated argument between two women near the departures area. No visible from where i was, just the sounds. Even though it was in the local language, I clearly understood the discussion was anything but friendly, so much so that most people around me stopped what they were doing and looked toward the source of the shouting. It’s very rare to see people lose their temper like that in India (and there’s certainly enough reason to do sometimes 🤪).

Once the storm had passed, the Air India Express check-in counters finally opened and chaos broke out immediately…
I managed to push through a bit to get my bag scanned, surrounded by passengers heading to Dubai carrying a lot of luggage. During the check-in step, a hostess thankfully came to my rescue and directed me to a counter dedicated to the Bangalore flight. The agent was very kind and even asked if I wanted to change seats. Since I’ve been already awarded with a window seat for free during check-in, I didn’t tempt my fate any further.

I come out with my checked luggage and a nice cardboard boarding pass in the new colors of Air India Express. Oh, and by the way, for those who haven’t read my previous flight reports (shame on you), you should know that the minimum baggage allowance in India includes a standard-sized 7kg cabin bag and a 15kg checked bag even on low-cost flights. It’s a dream when you're used to flying in Europe.

The FIDS showing departing flights includes many connections to major Indian cities, but also a few flights to Gulf countries. A reminder of the fact that tens of millions of Indians work in the Gulf states, and many of them come from the southern states of the country.

Heading to security, where there's a bit of a wait and, as usual, you have a 100% chance of getting a secondary check at the metal detector even if the it doesn’t beep. Same thing in the Bangalore underground (yes, you read that right… can’t wait to see the same at 6 p.m. in Paris Châtelet station 😱).

I then arrive airside, in an area spread over two levels with six boarding gates and many shops ranging from retail stores to bars and fast food. No major international brands, just local ones.

Plenty of time to wait, time to go dinner with an excellent Masala Dosa (a giant crispy crepe filled with a spiced vegetable stuffing that Indians typically eat for breakfast), for drink i took my usual mango lassi both of which were excellent.

Upstairs, there’s also a mix of shops and food outlets.

There are even a few spots with views on the aircraft at the gate. Here, an Indigo A320neo that will take off in a few hours for Dubai.

Or this Air India Express Boeing 737-800

You can take part at the raffles and try to win this magnificent Royal Enfield motorcycle.

Outside, there’s activity again with the arrival of this Indigo Airbus A321neo from Mumbai, which is nearly two hours late.

Then it's the turn of this Airbus A320neo from Bangalore to arrive at the gate.

Shortly after, this Air India Express Boeing 737-800 arrived from Kuwait City. I must say I quite liked this livery, with a different design on each side of the tail and a unique decoration for each of the Boeing 737s in the fleet.

On the IndiGo side, a quick boarding helped make up some of the delay for the aircraft preparing to return to Mumbai.

Our flight is announced at gate 4 but with nearly an hour’s delay from the scheduled departure time.

Meanwhile, the Air India Express Boeing 737-800 is getting ready to take off, heading to Dubai.

Shortly after, it’s our evening Boeing 737 Max 8’s turn to arrive from Bangalore.

Immediately, the ground staff sprang into action to start the boarding process as quickly as possible. It turned out a bit chaotic, as passengers didn’t seem very familiar with boarding by rows.

A brief introduction to our aircraft of the day. As mentioned earlier, it’s a Boeing 737 Max 8 that Air India Express received two months ago. You might think this plane is brand new, well yes and no… In fact, it was originally built for China Eastern Airlines over two years ago.

However, it never flew for the Chinese carrier and was stored for those two years due to the extended grounding of the Max following the two tragic accidents related to the MCAS system, combined with Chinese authorities suspending Max flight approvals for an additional year. Eventually, China Eastern gave up taking delivery of this aircraft, which was then sold ‘as is’ to Air India Express… and you can see that inside!

By the way, it wear the new Air India Express livery, which I actually find very well done.

Ground operations are ongoing, with refueling and baggage loading.

Meanwhile, passengers like me wait in this pre-boarding area located just before the jet bridge, until we get the green light to board.

Our nearby gate visitor has changed; this time it’s a Boeing 737-800 departing for Bahrain.

On board AIX Boeing 737max-8

On the left side the good old 737 main door. On the right side, you can see this large galley unit with LED lighting—one of the first times I’ve seen that on a Boeing 737. The onboard welcome from the crew was friendly and smiling.

There’s a nice cabin forward cabin with 8 seats featuring recliners. Looked very comfortable and were apparently equipped with IFE, although it didn’t seem to be working on this flight. It’s possible to book these seats for about twenty euros, which I believe, also includes a snack… not very useful for a flight under 40 minutes, but for a longer flight, it might be worth it!

Then, unsurprisingly, economy class occupies the rest of the cabin, featuring Recaro seats in shades of grey.

The cabin, like the seat comfort, is quite good likely inherited from the aircraft’s original intended owner, China Eastern.

As for the cabin layout and overhead panel, we find Boeing’s Sky Interior, which has been featured on the 737 family for about a decade now. In any case, the mood lighting is set to match the airline’s color tones.

The overhead bins are closed, and passengers are seated. The cabin crew performed the safety demonstrations manually before our pushback.

Next to us an IndiGo Airbus A320neo, will start is flight for Delhi a few minutes before us.

Close-up of our ‘scimitar wingtip’ featuring the new Air India Express logo.

During our taxiing, the cabin was dimmed with a darker blue light for takeoff, as a safety measure.

We leave the terminal behind us, where another Air India Express Boeing 737-800, seen earlier, is currently boarding.

The taxi to runway 24 was fairly short, and we took off without delay from the small runway at Mangalore Airport.

We quickly gain altitude as the lights of Mangalore’s outskirts gradually fade into the distance.

We made an almost 180° turn, circling over the port city we just left behind, leaving the Arabian Sea coast behind us as we headed inland into Karnataka.

The lights will be turned back on during the service, which will be quickly completed with few pre-orders and few purchases during the BOB (Buy On Board), understandable as the flight doesn’t last more than 50 minutes.

This time, the safety card was the only item present in the seat pocket. There were other safety cards with the old design, the ones used on the Boeing 737-800 on some seat pockets. However, throughout the entire aircraft, there was no magazine containing the Buy On Board (BOB) menu, unlike on my previous flight with Air India Express.

However, a free bottle of water will be given to all passengers.

The flightpath taken by our evening flight had a notably low cruising altitude of only 19,000 ft, and the approach into BLR was rather unusual.

The approach also took place in the dark of night, and I was not on the right side to catch a glimpse of the city lights

Night arrival on BLR T2

We landed smoothly on runway 09L, once again, I wasn’t on the right side to see the aprons and terminals. Moreover, since this runway is closest to Terminal 2, we reached the gate quickly and were ready to disembark in no time.

We are parked next to this Airbus A320neo still wearing the old AirAsia livery, which had just arrived from Ranchi (a city in the state of Jharkhand, near Kolkata)

Disembarkation began quickly, and it was time for me to leave this cabin surprisingly pleasant for a low-cost airline. You can see the small design features in the cabin layout that allowed an extra row of seats to be added without sacrificing a lavatory.

Being among the last to leave the cabin, I took the opportunity to snap a few photos of the now-empty cabin.

Before heading through the jet bridge connected to the aircraft’s front left door, I do not forget to greet the cabin crew at the door, who were polite and smiling.

Outside, we saw the same A320neo spotted earlier. This Airbus will soon be repainted in the same livery as our Boeing of the day, as part of the brand consolidation under the new Tata-led Air India group.

We were at the end of the pier, and a bit of walking awaited us into the heart of the brand-new Terminal 2, featuring a modern layout and numerous wooden structural elements throughout the building.

No expense was spared on the decoration, especially the stunning wooden cage-style light fixtures that blend perfectly with the building’s architectural design.

I had to wait about two short minutes before seeing my bag emerge from the depths of the airport and roll onto the carousel. In fact, since all Indian airlines include a checked bag in their base fare, most passengers do check in luggage.

The back wall of the baggage claim area is a massive screen displaying various decorative animations. I wouldn’t be surprised if advertising banners start appearing there in the future.

The path to the exit is relatively short, as there isn’t really a groundside area in the arrivals section of the terminal. You quickly find yourself outside the building, under the massive canopy that serves as a public area, where many services are available from shops to currency exchange counters. A small downside: if you need to withdraw cash, ATMs are limited in number, and I was never able to successfully withdraw money from any of them.

It was almost 11 p.m., but most of the shops, including food outlets, were still open.

Heading left from the area, you'll find the airport taxi waiting zone. They always use the meters … however, some sneaky drivers don’t always take the shortest, or fastest route, which involves paying a toll. A gentle reminder about the correct route usually helps to get on the right road. Expect at least 1 hour and 20 minutes to reach downtown Bangalore, and much longer during rush hour.