This December, I had a chance to fly Air Costa, one of the newer airlines to operate in India. I travelled from Jaipur to Bangalore and my first impressions are fairly positive. A year before, in December 2013, I had chosen a larger airline to fly on the same route although Air Costa’s prices were the lowest when I booked. But I was unsure about travelling with a small and new airline and decided to play safe. This time, when a flight search showed up low-fares on Air Costa again, I decided to take it.
It has been more than a year since Air Costa is operating. They are currently connecting nine cities across India, mostly in the south except Ahmedabad and Jaipur. Here is a quick look at my first impressions of the airline.
Comfort
This is one area where Air Costa scores very high. With their smaller Brazilian made Embraer Aircraft, none of their flights have middle seats. The 2+2 seating relieves the pain of getting sandwiched between two other passengers in a cramped fuselage. The interiors feel lot less claustrophobic and lot more comfortable than most long haul flights.
In October 2013, I fell down from a pagoda in Bagan, Myanmar, and dislocated a wrist bone in the right hand. The problem could not be diagnosed in Nyang U (Bagan) and I had to fly back home for a surgery. It took me a three-hop journey on three different airlines to get home. Subsequently, recuperating from a surgery and permitted by my doctor to travel, I took eight more flights in a span of two months when my hand was still in a sling or wrapped in a splint.
With a total of eleven hops using six different airlines, I had a chance to see how different airlines treat passengers with special needs. I was surprised at the sea difference in their treatment, sometimes even among the staff of same airline in different airports.
During all these journeys, I never requested for wheel chairs or special assistance, as my left hand was intact and I was able to handle my baggage, albeit with some difficulty. In some occasions, airline staff came forward to help me when they noticed my hand in a sling. Most airlines were neutral and in the only instance when I requested for some privilege, I was turned down.
Here is a compilation of my experiences taking eleven flights with six airlines.
The Best – Yangon Airways at Nyang U (Bagan) Airport
It is five months since I took a Yangon Airways flight from Nyang U (Bagan) to Mandalay and I still can’t forget how friendly the staff were. On arrival at airport, my cab driver waved at an airline staff at the gates and asked him to help me. One look at my injured hand (and many cuts on my face as well) and he understood I can do with some help. He sprung into the cab, lifted my bags out and placed them on a trolley. When I stretched my left hand (the uninjured hand) to push the trolley, he refused to hand it over and escorted me to the check-in counter.
More than a year back, I had suggested a few ideas to make low cost airlines profitable. No one has been smart enough to follow the strategies I suggested, but they are slowly moving towards implementing them.
Ryanair is trying, and so are some US airlines. First they wanted to charge fat passengers for two seats. They took the idea from me. It was only a modification of my earlier plan to charge pregnant women for two tickets. Ryanair once made a proposal of charging passengers for using toilets. Of course, that was my idea too. Now, they want to charge super steep additional fee of 40 euros to use check-in counter to print boarding pass. Obviously it’s a small modification of my proposal to allot seat numbers for those who pay extra.
Now that I see people taking up to my idea, I have a new career in mind. Meet Mr.Arun, the low cost career consultant. My mission is to eventually make flying free for all. And my vision is to stay highly profitable by recovering the cost of tickets by some forward-thinking strategies. Here is one for example: Some airlines are currently charging for checking in first baggage. No one seems to have been thinking of charging for retrieving checked baggage! You get the drift?