• Mumbai Airport Terminal 2
• Clipper Lounge, Mumbai Terminal 2
• Courtyard by Marriott Hotel, Kochi Airport
• Clipper Lounge Cochin

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If I haven’t mentioned this before, the Cochin Airport is made to look more like arriving at a red-brick palace than arriving at an airport. Here is what it looked from outside.

We spent a brief moment pre-security at the dead Clipper Lounge, and then proceeded to clear security check, where I realised my palatial analogy was going to fit even better. This airport missed anything that was modern, and was full of wooden chairs (more like side pieces from couches) from another generation. My first time there and I sure was surprised.

The wait was prolonged, because like it always happens, the creeping delays on the flight started to set in once I landed up inside the hold area. The incoming plane was delayed from Mumbai, and since it turns around after a brief stop, this journey was going to be delayed by quite a bit. I had booked Air India over Indigo and Jet Airways because they were the first flight out of Cochin, and now, they were going to be the last.

I waited and some more, while I got a few views of the tarmac, including this Jet Airways plane which was good to go.

Anyhow, the flight was delayed by about 40 minutes from the originally scheduled time, and the plane was waiting on the tarmac. This plane was an Airbus A319, still painted in the old Indian livery, and the same plane as the one I arrived on. Seems this plane does travel to this airport on a daily basis on some or the other route.

Cochin(COK) – Mumbai(BOM)
Tuesday, February 25 2014
Depart: 08:40AM
Arrive: 10:43AM
Duration: 02hr08min
Distance flown: 658 miles
Aircraft: Airbus A319
Seat: 2D (Economy)
Meal Service: Breakfast

After a lot of chaos, the Air India staff finally got their act together and started boarding the plane. Small airport, not much traffic. So all they had to do was to open the gates and we could walk towards the apron. Which they did after much nagging from the passengers.

I tried getting a better shot of the Indian livery of this plane, with the old pre-merger logo, but I was not very successful. The same plane had earlier served time with the subsidiary of Indian Airlines (Alliance Air) as well.

Perhaps I had a better shot at the livery when I arrived at this airport on the same plane a few days ago.

This was an all economy configuration plane, and the red and orange of Air India greeted us. Here is a shot from the back of the plane.

The poor upkeep of the plane was very visible right on my seat as I looked up. Someone had etched the seat numbers on the plane and the paint/stickers were gone. Could happen anywhere else, but happened specifically in Air India where they anyways don’t take due care of fixing the plane.

We were airborne in no time, and the crew started meal service immediately after take off. Now, while I have had bad experiences with Air India’s in flight catering, this was pretty good food, and maybe we can thank the caterer for this one. Here is the vegetarian option, which had idlis, uttapam, sambar and some bread and preservatives.

On the other hand, the non-vegetarian meal had scrambled eggs, a small chicken cutlet and some fruits along with preservatives.

From there on, the flight was pretty much uneventful, and once I landed in Mumbai, I found my way out where I had an Uber cab waiting for me to take me to work.

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