Airline Reliability for the NE of India?

GerardKelly

What has been other people's experience with Indian Domestic Airlines for travel into the north east out of Kolkata?

Each airline seems to have it's pros and cons, and all flight regularly between Kolkata and Guwahati, but:

Jet Airways - now the largest domestic with a long track record of reasonable service, and privately owned and run. Likely more capacity for flights each day, but no flights out of Dibrugarh, but to Jorhat and Bagdogra? http://www.jetairways.com/

Jet Lite (formerly Air Safari, owned by Jet Airways now) - smaller but with flights out to Dibrugarh in the far NE as a potental starting point and working back. No flights out of Bagdogra though. http://www.jetlite.com/jlv1/default.aspx

Deccan - had financial problems but has since been bought out by United Brewery, part of the Kingfisher brand. Has flights out to Dibrugarh, Jorhat and Bagdogra also. http://www.airdeccan.net/

Spice Jet - no idea of its financials, but new low budget with flights to Bagdogra but not further east of Guwahati. Their booking system does not show flights after October 25 2008. http://www.spicejet.com/

Indian Airlines (recently merged with Air India) - government carrier with older fleet, but many options for flying to the east IF flights go. Has destinations including Bagdogra, Dibrugarh, Tezpur, and Jorhat. http://www.indianairlines.in/index.aspx

So does anyone have good or bad stories with these airlines? My greatest concern is with reliability over price, as my timing is tight and looking at some key flights to cut down transporation travel time.

traveller.1

The airports are very congested and this often causes delays. Most carriers are with modern, fleets except for Air India and Indian Air lines. I have got the best prices through cleartrip.com. They do not take american express. The rates here do not differ very greatly with booking times like in the United States. I often do last minute bookings.

Do not buy tickets on connecting flights with only a couple of hours in between as you could easily miss connections.

steven_ber

I used Indian Airlines from Dibrugarh to Kolkata a few years ago, flight departed and arrived on time, service was great, Dibrugarh airport was small and easy to use.

If you're really worried about timings, try to keep to early morning flights, try to find out what airlines have some planes based in Kolkata, and try to make sure your flight doesn't begin it's daily schedule a long way away, particularly Delhi if you'll be flying in December or January (fog in Delhi).

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Dr.Barai

I frequently travel to north east with indian airlines/jet and kingfisher. Survice is just like any other indian sector.

flyingstars

Upto Guwahati Airport, Airlines are quite reliable and are quite regular. But for the other places sometimes the flights does get re-scheduled or get canceled. I think Indian-Airlines is more reliable over the lot & they have more flights also along with the connectivity to all major places. For the timing generally try to choose the morning or the first flights.