Kuwait Airport 1 hour transit time experience

When I saw an ultra cheap ticket to Europe (Mumbai Athens return for 24k INR, almost half the normal price) I almost immediately decided to book. But my biggest worry on this ticket was 1 hour transit time in Kuwait, including a terminal change.

I was scheduled to arrive at Terminal 2 from Mumbai by 9.20 AM and next flight is from Terminal 4 at 10.30 AM, giving me just 70 minutes aircraft to aircraft.

If I am to miss my connection, next flight to Athens was only next day, that too one stop via Italy. I would loose almost 2 days of holiday because of this.

I decided to take the gamble and book the ticket. Below were my initial risk assessment

• I won't have checked in bag, so one less task for the airline
  
• Kuwait Airport Terminal 2 and terminal 4 are not too far. It is possible to rush
• Airlines sometime delay a flight if there're lots of connecting passengers from a previous flight which gets delayed. If I am the only person flying in from Mumbai connecting to Athens they may not hold an entire aircraft for me, but say if there're 20-30 passengers who have a short transit, it is more sensible for airline to delay the flight by 30-60 minutes than bear the cost of providing hotel to 20-30 people, putting them on next flight (which might be full as well)
  
• Many other people had booked similar tickets with 1 hour transit time. Many have made it through, few had to miss their connection, were given a hotel by airline or put on next flight.
• Because I am saving significantly on the flight, the risk is worth taking- worst case I may lose a day & some money, can explore Kuwait city using transit visa.
  

I decided to press forward in optimism.

The Mumbai Kuwait flight showed 91% on time performance. It is a narrow body aircraft with about 150 passengers, so will be quicker to board and take off compared to wide body planes with 300+ seats. So there was fair hope of reaching on time

I will NOT have any checked bag, so I can rush and might be able to make it. Could not check the on time performance of my connecting flight KU 175 on flightstats.com. If connecting flight is delayed a bit I am safe.

Below is how my experience went

• Online check-in I could only get row 19, nothing further unless I opt to pay
• At the airport requested check in counter staff for a further front row. Got a seat in row 12
• Inbound flight arrived few minutes earlier than schedule-one risk eliminated
• We boarded on time, but our departure delayed-instead of scheduled 7.15 take off,we took off only by 7.45. Congestion at Mumbai airport is blamed. This removed 30 minutes from 70 min transit time I had, adding to risk
• We touched down in Kuwait at around 9.30, almost on time, reached gate by 9.40 but they took more than 10-15 minutes to open the door after aircraft reached the gate. 
• As I got out of the aircraft I was expecting some Kuwait air ground staff would be holding my name and will guide me to next gate- but there were NO ONE. I was on my own.
• I didn't have a clue how to go to another terminal and to my gate. But as there was only 1 way to proceed I walked fast, reached transfer desk. 
• There I had to clear security- Luckily no rush but they did all the random test on my - ion scanning for drugs, full body pat down, checking all bags etc. Took about 5 mins. 9.35 AM boarding for Athens was supposed to start and 10.10 was gate closure time. It was now 10 AM.
• As I cleared security I had to figure out where in Gate D8. Asked a staff, they told me to go up. Luckily though it is a terminal change everything is in same building, so not much walking (In Singapore you'll have to take trains between terminals, Mumbai Delhi- go out of airport and take a bus- needs lots of time)
• As I reached my gate noticed that boarding for Athens has not started yet. So I could relax and sit. Boarding started 5 minutes later, but take off was delayed by about 45-50 minutes compared to original time. My guess is they chose to delay the flight due to connecting passengers and their bags
• Rest of the journey went smooth. Kuwait airways experience will share in a separate post.
• Reached Athens and the trip is ON
  

So my advise is, take a chance with Kuwait airways 1 hour transit if the fares are pretty cheap. It is a gamble with great rewards if all goes well, but some reasonable risk of loss of time and money if you miss the connection. Go mentally prepared to miss the connection and with a plan B.

Kuwait Airways detailed review here

Flyarystan stopping India services?

March 2024 Update: Flew to Almaty and back - experience was fine. Looks like Delhi flights are intact as of now. Airline is accepting booking for rest of 2024

-- Original post-

Looks like FlyArystan, Air Astana's low cost subsidiary that operates flight between Delhi to Almaty for as low as 7000 INR return, is not keen on continuing India flights

Their official website no longer accepting bookings from April 2024. Fly Arystan had Mumbai-Almaty service which also is no longer offered. They were flying to CIT (Shymkent) last year but stopped that and replaced with flight to Almaty, now even that seems to be discontinued.

I have one ticket with them in March. Hopefully that flight will operate as per schedule.

Almaty and central Asia destinations had gained popularity among Indians off late, as flight to Europe and South East Asia got very expensive. Not sure why Flyarystan decided to discontinue India operations- maybe they couldn't sell as many tickets as they were hoping or they want the aircraft for some other destination they feel more profitable.

Hopefully they will resume India flights soon. Let us wait and see

Chennai Sydney return for 30k-Scoot

In 2016, 2018 I had flown Chennai-Gold Coast, Chennai Melbourne for around 20-22k. Finding such low fares was difficult post covid.

Now I see Chennai-Sydney return for 30k on Scoot. If you had plans for Australia this is a good deal. Available for several dates in September, October 2024. Chennai Srinagar, Chennai-Sikkim are likely to cost much more than 30k, so a trip to Australia is a good idea.

Scoot is a low cost carrier and above price doesn't include checked bags or meals- so that will be an additional expense. Air Asia was Scoot's closest competitor- but now doesn't look like Air Asia X is operating between KUL and SYD, leaving Scoot as next best option for us.

More about Scoot here

4 Ways to predict probability of your flight delay

Delays are common in service industry, particularly travel. Aviation services have dependency on 100s of parameters- weather, aircraft, crew, regulations, airport issues, passenger issues and so on. Often some of these fail and cause disruption in services affecting our travel plans. When we book tickets months in advance it is almost impossible to be sure that our flight will operate on time, but below are some of the ways through which we can assess the probability of delay and the associated risks.

1. Flight stats on time performance tracker

Flight tracking websites like fligtstats tell us on time performance of a given flight, based on historic data. No flight will be 100% on time. I think anything above 90% is great, 80-90% is OK if the risk of minor delay is manageable to you (like you don't have a connecting flight or an important meeting etc)

2. Ixigo indicator

Some ticket booking sites like Ixigo give a hint about possible delays. This is also based on historic data and too much delay can be considered as a red flag

3. Typical factors that cause delay

There are factors that affect all airlines and may cause delay. This is more of a generic knowledge and will help you be mentally prepared and have a plan B in case you're affected

• Winter season- snow, fog often causes delay. So early morning flights to or from cold destinations during winter have higher risk of delay. Study news about your origin and destination for same time previous year to understand what all happened. Chances are similar delays may happen this year as well.
• Airport maintenance, runway closure- keep an eye on news and you will get some idea
• Special events- Events like Aero India, VVIP visit etc will cause some disruption to normal flights
• Delay accumulated during the day- Evening flights have a higher chance of delay as small delays that occur throughout the day add up and evening flight may get delayed longer
• Airline specific issues- airline having financial trouble, pilot shortage, aircraft issues etc are more likely to face operational delays

4. Incoming flight data

If you know from where the aircraft for your flight is flying in from, you can predict delays better. If the inbound aircraft has NOT taken off on time, the return or next flight, which is yours, is guaranteed to be delayed. This previous flight info is not easy to find

• Air India shows this info on their app. Image taken from twitter. If the incoming aircraft is delayed by 4 hours and airline is showing only 1 hour delay for your flight, you can suspect it will be delayed further.

• Sometimes you can predict through guess- like you've booked Andaman-BLR flight, you can check if the aircraft is arriving from BLR. If not, check for flights to your origin city (Port Blair in this example) from major cities- Delhi, CCU, BLR etc and if you see a flight of same airline arriving 30-45 mins before your departure time, most likely that is the aircraft that will be used. 
• This approach may not work in big airports like Mumbai/Delhi- airlines will have dozens of flights coming in to Delhi/Mumbai- hard to guess which one will be yours

Managing delays

There is nothing much we can do if our flight is delayed.

• Airlines will NOT give spot refund and buying another ticket in a different airline is usually pretty expensive with no guarantee that the other flight will operate on time
• There are some compensation rules but airlines know how to circumvent this and avoid paying anything
• Best way is to anticipate delay and have a plan B. 
• If the month you're traveling is prone to weather based delays see if you can travel a month later or keep lots of buffer for delays (like instead of taking early morning flight for same day meeting, fly in previous evening). 
• Avoid booking flights with very short connection time like 1-2 hour.
• If flying long distance keep a buffer of a day or two. Like don't plan to arrive in Paris Day 01 evening and have a non refundable Disneyland ticket next day morning. Keep next day free for local exploration- even if you land a day late, loss should be minimum.
• If the airline has very poor on time performance, better pay a few hundred more and book in different airline
• Carry some food and extra cloths in cabin bag, just in case there are major delays
• For destinations that can be reached via overnight train, train may be cheaper and better option than flight. (anything around 500 kms)
• No point fighting with ground staff. They are pretty helpless when a flight is delayed or cancelled. No amount of shouting will get you any priority over 180 other passengers affected. Be calm, explore alternate options and see how best you can manage the situation.

Good luck.

Manta air flight BLR to Dhaalu Atol- will it happen?

Maldive's Manta Air had advertised opening direct flight between Bengaluru and Dhaalu Atol. Now with latest India-Maldives row, this looks doubtful. Let us wait and watch.

Dhaalu Atol is one of the islands in middle of Maldives. So far reaching Dhaalu meant flying to Male airport and boarding another 55 min flight paying 300+ USD extra (total round trip from India could easily cost 50-60k INR.

Now a direct flight will reduce cost and time. There are few resorts around Dhaalu so guests of these resorts will have cheaper and faster access now.

I've flown to Male and had another trip to GAN island at the south of Maldives. Will look forward to plan a trip to Dhaalu Atol this year.

The original press statement from Manta Air is here- flight launch was slated for Jan 2024. But they had not mentioned from what date the flights would commence. Their website also doesn't have BLR as an airport yet. With the current India-Maldives issue I think they will delay the plan. Have to keep checking their site once a while to see if BLR is getting shown as an option to book. Let me see.

As of now Malta air website can't even be accessed in India. Not sure if it is temporary glitch or website is deliberately blocked for access from India due to recent issues. You can try your luck  https://mantaair.mv/book

Malta Air only has ATRs and no A320s. I guess it can still fly BLR to DDD without any issue in 2-3 hours, although a bit slower.