Air India
Mumbai, India (BOM) – GOA (GOI)
Flight number: AI661
Aircraft: Airbus A320
Departure: 4:50 pm (local time)
Arrival: 6:00 pm (local time)
Duration: 1h 10min
Seats: (Business Class)
“Local Indian Business”
One day we visited Mumbai for several days and decided to go for beach weekends. As we were in India, we wanted to experience its local airline for domestic flight. The choice came to Air India and its Business Class on board of A319, as the distance is pretty small.
1. Airport time
In India it is really strict with all the control stations, starting from airport entrance, which you can pass only having a plane ticket, continuing with check-in counters and finishing with hand luggage control, despite the domestic terminal.
We spent some time for all these thing and moved to the lounge, as there is no passport control, travelling inside the country. We were offered GVK Lounge, which is an airport lounge, not the owned by Air India. It was big enough, providing different zones, dining area and SPA center.
There are several sitting areas with reading materials and some multimedia, bar, which serves alcohol beverages for extra charge and dining zone with a good buffet. We had some drinks there and moved to boarding.
Air India Business Class check-in GVK Lounge Mumbai domestic GVK Lounge Mumbai GVK Lounge Mumbai newspapers GVK Lounge Mumbai bar GVK Lounge Mumbai restaurant GVK Lounge Mumbai starters GVK Lounge Mumbai buffet GVK Lounge Mumbai desserts GVK Lounge Mumbai drinks GVK Lounge Mumbai restrooms GVK Lounge Mumbai toilet Air India Boarding
2. Flight time
The flight was short, about one hour and pretty comfortable, despite the old aircraft, provided by Air India. To be honest, we thought that India is not a rich company and Business Class would be free of passengers, but it was full.
Seat on board of Air India Business Class are not the most comfortable, but pretty good for such distances. It was much wider than Economy Class seats, provided a lot of leg space and small pillows. In the pocket of the seat in front we had a standard package – magazines, safety instruction and airsickness bag.
One of the arm rests had a button for seat recline and storages tray table. Between the seats there was a small table for drinks. By the way, we had an interesting choice of welcome drinks – papaya juice and coconut water. Also we got small bottles of still water and refreshment towels before the flight.
Air India Business Class seats Air India Business Class seat Air India Business Class safety card Air India Business Class leg space Air India Business Class drinks table Air India Business Class refreshing towel Air India Business Class pillow Air India Business Class tray table Air India Business Class seat recline Air India Business Class sockets
2.1. Food
As soon as we took off, the cabin crew started a meal service, as the flight was really short. There was no choice for a meal, every passenger had the same package, which included vegetable sandwiches, beans salad and dessert. The only thing that had different options, was dessert, but FAs handed it out randomly, some people had fruits, the other a kind of sweet milky rice.
To say the truth, the meal was not tasty at all, but we were not really hungry, as the flight was really short.
Air India Business Class meal
2.2. Lavatory
The lavatory we checked right after the meal service was finished, as in 10 minutes after the lunch we started descending. It was a typical A319/A320 lavatory, small and clean.
Air India Business Class lavatory
3. The verdict
What we can conduct about the flight, it was Ok. Nothing special, old aircraft, friendly staff, not really good meal, clean cabin. Very controversy impressions we have about the flight. Comparing it wit Garuda, another Asian company we used for Business Class flight, it is a bit worse, but we have no complains anyway.
Would we recommend it? Probably yes, if you don’t mind a lot about the price. If yes, you may take Air India Economy, as there is no much different.
