Cheapest way to reach Hyderabad airport-RGIA bus timing, fare and routes!

Like Bengaluru and Kochi airport, Hyderabad airport is far from city-some 30+ kms. Naturally, renting a cab is going to be expensive, sometimes more expensive than the flight ticket itself. Thus it is very critical to know about budget alternatives- cheaper ways to reach Hyderabad's Rajiv Gandhi international airport from Hyderabad/Secunderabad city or from city to airport.

During my last stopover, I went out to take stock of the public transportation option available at RGIA. Here's what I found:

City buses, known as Pushpak service is available till 1 AM in the night.
Fare per person ranges from Rs 160 to 265
Frequency is good enough- every 20-30 minutes.

Hyderabad Shamshabad RGIA Public transportation bus routes:
Find out your final destination (hotel/home etc) is closest to which of the following. Accordingly select the route code (A1, A2 etc). Staff at counter can help you but will save time if you've done your check before and go prepared.


Hyderabad RGIA to JNTU City bus schedule
Below is the schedule for B1 and P1 route. Schedule for other routes are also fairly similar.

Hyderabad RGIA to City bus fares
Fares begin at about Rs 160 to nearby places and go upto 265 for far away places.
How much would a taxi cost? When I checked on Ola, RGIA to Secunderabad Railway station was quoted at about Rs 650. But depending on demand supply this can go up and down, so expect a range of Rs 600 to 1000 if you chose a cab. If you're 3 to 4 people, booking a taxi might make economical sense than buying 3-4 bus tickets. But for one person, bus is most economical. (Even Share will cost at around Rs 350-400 onwards)

Contact numbers:
If you have an queries, below contact numbers can be used

Thus, don't get fooled by taxi guys as you exit the airport. You now know that pushpak bus service is available all through the day and till 1 AM.  Refer this website for more details

Unfortunately Hyderabad Metro is still not operational till airport. (Confirmed by Social Maharaj) So we've to depend on bus only as of now.

If you wish to stay closest to airport, Novotel Hyderabad airport is a good option. They have free airport shuttle.

Similar: Cheap transport to Chennai Airport *  

Sanjay Ghodawat group to launch Star Airline

Sanjay Ghodawat group is a big name in Pune, Satara, Kolhapur area. One of their earliest and prominent product was Star Gutka. Over time they have expanded to various consumer goods and other businesses- education, consumer goods, real estate and so on. Latest news is that the group is looking to enter aviation sector with a brand name, Star Air. The website is already up but doesn’t have much details. A map on the website shows Pune, Hubli, Tirupati and Hindon (near Delhi) airports, with Hubli as a hub (as per animation) so we can assume they are looking to fly to these airports first, taking advantage of benefits offered under UDAN scheme. Website says airline's corporate office will be in Bengaluru.

I saw this ad in Pune airport, which shows a turbo engine jet, which I believe is only representative.

It is not clear from when they will commence operation. Launching an airline takes couple of years at the minimum from conceptualization to launch of operations. Assuming Star Air team is halfway through their preparations, may be sometime in early 2019 we should be able to see more details of Star Air’s operations, pricing and launch date information.

Check http://starair.in

Jet Airways 100+ new domestic flights

Jet Airways has announced 100+ new flights this summer. Most of them north Indian cities, very few new flights in South India (none from Chennai). This is a sort of respite as Indigo had to cancel 60+ flights each day due to DGCA order based on engine issues.

The list of new flights is below. You can check if your city or city you're planning to visit is covered. This is in addition to existing flights that cover most Indian cities. Do check on jetairways.com for fares.

Malindo air Fantastic 5 sale to celebrate 5 years in India- 5 million seats at discounted prices

Malindo air completes 5 years of India operations and to celebrate the same is running a sale with 5 million seats at discounted prices. Sale is ON right now till 25th March. Travel time shall be from 1st July 2018 till 28th Feb 2019

Chandran Rama Muthy, CEO of Malindo Air said, “It is indeed a fantastic 5 years - an exciting yet challenging journey for us. In order to express our gratitude towards the support from our passengers, we are giving everyone more reasons to fly with us, with our Fantastic 5 anniversary promotion.” “In the meantime, stay tuned on our social media and website for more exciting news about our Fantastic 5 anniversary celebrations,” he added.

I have had the opportunity to travel on Malindo last year- their service includes 25 kg baggage, free meals and WiFi on board in select planes (chargeable). Malindo uses B737 on most routes and its economy class seat has more space than budget rivals. Under the promo fare, round trip ticket to most of South East Asian destinations can be had for under 18-20k INR (normal price aroun 25-30k) Check on malindoair.com

Vietjet Delhi-Saigon direct flights from July

I had written earlier about how Vietnam makes an ideal direct flight destination from India. Now that seems to be materializing.

The news is that Vietjet, Vietnam's popular private airline, nicknamed Bikini airline is all set to fly between New Delhi and Ho Chi Minh city (formerly known as Saigon) from July 2018. Vietjet will operate 4 flights per week. [News source: Financial Times]

This is good news. Vietnam has a relatively easy eVisa policy, is an extremely affordable destination to visit and has lots of natural beauty visitors can explore. At present visiting Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh would need one stop flight via Kuala Lumpur or Singapore or Bangkok. With the new direct flight, Delhi people can travel non stop (about 3-4 hours) while rest of India can fly one stop via Delhi. Check this post for exploring Vietnam on Budget. Click here for my other Vietnam posts.

Vietjet website is yet to be updated with New Delhi as a destination. Airline largely operates A320 and A321 fleet. At present cheapest return ticket to Ho Chi Minh city costs at about 10-12k during Air Asia Sale and about 15-20k under normal conditions. Let us see how VietJet prices its tickets.

VietJet rose to popularity after a photoshoot involving its cabin crew posing in Bikini. But to set expectations right- don't expect cabin crew to work in two pieces on every flight- they do it only on some select occasions. Airline also got penalized multiple times by the authorities for violating various code of conducts, but I guess fine amount is nothing compared to publicity airline got with bikini crew.

VietJet landing in Macau, clicked by me in 2016

VietJet is not part of star alliance. Let us see which airline they will partner in India for extended connectivity. Hopefully they will add few more Indian cities to their network once Delhi-SGN route becomes a success. This should also encourage from Indian airlines to fly direct to Hanoi or SGN.

If you're visiting Vietnam you may wish to visit Hanoi as well. So it might be a good idea to book one way to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh city) and return separately via Hanoi or vice versa. 

Govt plans to extend UDAN to international flights

This news in LiveMint suggests Govt of India is planning to extend UDAN scheme from domestic to international flights. This means airlines willing to fly from less popular Indian airports to a nearby international destination will get some incentives and a portion of seats will have to be sold at government set upper ceiling price (like 2500 max for domestic). Some of the airports which only have domestic flights as of now may get upgraded to operate international flights. Besides airlines willing to fly, airport will need additional modifications- immigration and customs counters etc.

This move may also tempt low cost carriers like Air Asia, Air Arabia, Scoot to operate more flights to and from India’s cheaper airports.

Of course above news only shows an intention to expand UDAN to international sectors- doesn’t provide a timeline or a concrete decision. It may take an year before actual flights commence, assuming planning and preparation starts now.

Below table I have compiled a list of various nearby international destinations (few hours away from Indian shores), their current minimum fares and a possible price target if UDAN flights are to be introduced on these routes. Of course for cheap UDAN flights to be successful flights should operate from less expensive airports. For example if Bengaluru airport is expensive to operate, UDAN international flights can be operated from Mysuru or Hosur and hope more customers chose to travel to Mysuru due to overall savings.

Even on the other side, there are cheaper airport- for example, Gan Island in Maldives is much less popular compared to capial Male. In Vietnam, flights to DAD,  Phu Quoc might be cheaper to fly, Thailand has several less popular cities with airport, direct flights to where will be lot cheaper and so on...

#	Nearby International Destinations	Lowest seen return fare in recent times (INR)	Target for Udan flights (return fare, INR)
1	Chennai-Colombo	7500-8000	5000
2	BLR/Chennai to Mauritius	25000-30000	15000
3	Kochi/Trivandrum to Male (Maldives)	12000-14000	8000-10000
4	Delhi/Kolkata to Katmandu	8000-10000	5000-6000
5	Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Bangkok	6000-7000	5000-6000 (Air Asia, Scoot etc already offer very cheap flights)
6	Vietnam	No direct flights right now, around 10k return during sale	8000-9000 from CCU/MAA etc?
7	Paro (Bhutan)	Not many flights	5000-6000 from CCU/DEL?
8	Macau/Hong Kong	12000-14000	8000-10000
9	Sharjah/Dubai	10000-15000	7000-9000

What do you think of this plan? Which nearby international destination would you like to fly for cheap?

Trujet Chennai-Salem flights from 25th March for Rs 1500

I came to know about this news when I met Siddharth Raman from cardexpert.in earlier this week.

Trujet is slowly spreading its wings and has announced several new flights. Major one is flight to Salem from Chennai, which is said to commence from 25^th March. The flight is of about 50 minutes duration. While Trujet is advertising a fare of 1499, I am guessing that is applicable only for first few seats on each flights- for most of the random dates I checked, website was showing a return fare between Chennai and Salem to the tune of 3500-4000 rupees. This may increase a bit more once flight gets popular.

But some of their pricing feels insane- for example, when I checked Salem-Hyderabad, the website asked me to pay 15000 rupees one way, which is crazy. No sensible customer will pay that much- Trujet should work on some sensible upper cap for the pricing

Salem had an airport but didn’t have any flights for sometime. Many airlines tried operating flights to Salem but had to cancel due to poor patronage. Salem is gateway to Kolli Malai, Yercaud and other tourist destinations in the area.

Air Vistara to fly Kochi and Kolkata from Chennai

After recently adding Chennai as their 22^nd city (Air Vistara started flying from Chennai to Delhi n Port Plair), Air Vistara has announcing 2 new destinations from Chennai. Starting March 26^th, Air Vistara will fly once daily(except Tuesdays) between Chennai and Kochi and twice daily between Chennai and Kolkata.

About Kochi:

Kochi (Cochin) is one of the main gateways to Kerala. Other than exploring Kochi city, one can head to Alleppy or Kumarkon for house boatstay, towards Idukki/Vagamon/Periyar for hill station and wildlife experience. Athirapally falls, Guruvayur temple, Varkala beach etc are within driving distance from Kochi.

About Kolkata:

Kolkata needs no introduction. It is a gateway to north east and has its own set of attractions on offer. Explore Kali ghat temple, Vidyasagar sethu, Central Park in Salt lake city, trams and so on. You can also visit Sundarbans, Bishnupur, Darjeeling etc

 Below is the Air Vistara schedule from Chennai, sourced from its official website

Vistara had a just 1 day sale yesterday- managed to book a cheap ticket to Kochi (Rs 2250 return) and will look forward to my first Vistara experience.

Although a bit late, at least now Vistara has opening up to Chennai- hopefully they will introduce more flights from Chennai and run more frequent sales.

Related: Kochi airport bus timing & options * 

Srilankan Sale-some good deals still available

I had written earlier about Srilankan 50% off sale. I have booked a few tickets for myself in this sale. If you've not booked, don't worry- some good deals are still available. Though a few thousand rupees more than the cheapest I had seen earlier, these are still tempting fares. Do consider and book if it suits you.

Below is a quick reference of some of the low fares still available. You can explore more on Srilankan websites for origin and destination of your choice.

#	From – To	Current lowest return fare	Lowest I have seen (early Feb)	Dates to try/Remarks
1	Chennai- Colombo	8270	8207	Available for several months, including March/April 18
2	Chennai-Beijing	24679	200040	November-Dec 2018
3	Bengaluru-Beijing	26867		Several months, Sep/Oct onwards
4	Bengaluru- Colombo	10042		Available for several months, including April/May 18
5	Chennai-Gan Island	11137	9800	Available for several months

Chennai to Tokyo is available for 32000 INR which is super cool- An Air Asia cheapest ticket + 20 kg baggage fee will cost same.

Cheap tickets to Colombo, Gan Island, Male, Beijing etc are available from various South Indian cities like Chennai, Coimbatore, Bengaluru, Madurai etc. For some destinations like Colombo the fare is still as cheap as it was early February, for some other destinations it has gone up by a small margin but still tempting.

Srilankan is a full service airline- fare includes baggage and meals. On most routes they have wide body A330-200 or A330-300, with entertainment. So make full use of this sale. Let me know if you've booked any.

AirAisa to stop Mumbai flights-all you need to know!

AirAsia has announced it will discontinue ex-Mumbai flight effective April 30 (last flight out on April 29th 2018) [News]

While real reason is not known and may never be announced, some possible reasons could be as below:

1. High Airport fees- Mumbai airport fees are expensive- there’re hardly any slots left and there’s high competition among airlines to get more slots in Mumbai. Air Asia always prefers to operate from cheaper airports and paying lots of money to airport doesn’t sit will in their low cost strategy.

2. Wrong Aircraft type?

Air Asia X is operating a long haul A330 on Mumbai-KUL-DPS route. This route can be easily met with an A320. A330 can be used more profitably if flown elsewhere (to somewhere long distance away- like Japan, Korea, Australia or China. May be AirAsia thinks it will be more profitable to fly somewhere else than flying to Mumbai. They need to maximize returns from existing assets

3. Poor Load factor?

Low demand could be another reason, though we can’t be sure if flights to Mumbai were flying empty. An A330 is a wide body plane with 12 premium flatbed seats and close to 365 economy seats- twice as much as an A320 with about 180 seats total. Mumbai has excellent connectivity to rest of the world and main reason people booked Air Asia was because of low fare. But if you add 20 kg baggage fee and meals, the price difference under normal conditions wasn’t too great. Many would have preferred full service airlines. May be the load factor was relatively low, forcing airline to reconsider Mumbai.

So why is Air Asia not replacing 330-300 with a 320-200? Easy to say, but no airline keeps an aircraft idle. I am sure all Air Asia’s close to 200 strong A320 fleet is busy flying around the world. Providing one to Mumbai means they’ve to cut flight to some other destination to free up the aircraft- this isn’t any easy decision. Plus gate fee, landing fee and other fees are expensive in Mumbai and works out on in economy of scale.

Options provided by Air Asia to affected customers and their pros and cons!

If you're affected by Air Asia X Mumbai flight cancellation, airline has given 4 options- below are the pros and cons

#	Option	Pros	Cons	Remarks
1	Re-route through other cities from where Air Asia operates at no extra cost (fly to your destination out of BLR, Kochi etc)	If your trip was just till KUL or DMK you can fly out from Pune If you had a really really cheap ticket then this might be worth evaluating	No connection from Pune to any destinations apart from KUL and DMK You’ve to spend extra on travel from Mumbai to alternate city like BLR/COK etc n back	Like if you had Mumbai-Melbourne return ticket for 30k, no way you can get a better deal. Rescheduling to Cochin-Melburne  or Goa-Melbourne for free n spending another 5k for Mumbai-Kochi/Goa might still be good option
2	Take refund to credit account	Saves on convenience fee on your next booking	Has an expiry date-you may not get a sale or cheap fares immediately and may lose more Since all flights from Mumbai is suspended, you can only book from other cities- may not be cost effective overall Unused/partially used amount will be lost 100% after expiry date	Useful if you’re very regular flyer and is very very likely to book again in near future from some other cities
3	Reschedule to before April 29	Good option if everything else works for you (leave, hotel booking etc)	Hotels and other expenses may now cost more	Opt if pre-poning is convenient for you
4	Take full refund	Rebook at your convenience	Takes 30 days (claimed) Not sure if there’ll be some deductions towards bank charges No compensation for other indirect loss like hotel etc	Best Option

Alternatives:
Below are some of the alternate options for those who were relying on Air Asia for their travel plans

• Air Asia operates from Pune to Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur but doesn’t seem to be operating onward flights from rest of the world via KUL or DMK. Not sure why.
• Air Asia operates to several international destinations from Goa.
• Malindo Air flies to Mumbai and offers connectivity to various destinations via its hub in KUL. Malindo is slightly expensive than Air Asia but they are a full service airline and price includes baggage, food and other services which cost extra with Air Asia. [More: Malindo vs AirAsia *
• Fly to Kochi/Chennai/Trichy and fly out internationally- Flights out of Kochi, Trichy or Chennai are lot cheaper compared to ex-Mumbai flights. So one option is to take a domestic flight to these cities and fly international from here. Not too convenient, but can save several thousand rupees on a long distance flight.
• Please note that there’re two airports in Kuala Lumpur- KLIA1 and KLIA2. [Read: KLIA 1 vs KLIA2] Most full service airlines fly to KLIA1 and budget airlines operate from KLIA2. Unless you’ve a Malaysia Visa you can’t go from KLIA1 to KLIA2 or vice versa. So you can’t fly to Kuala Lumpur on a full service airline and connect to air Asia flight to else where, unless you’ve Malaysia visa. This is another concern for Mumbai residents as well as airlines- code share between full service and budget airline gets complicated.

Air Asia X- now everyone can fly extra long, but not from Mumbai

Changes are normal. We can't really blame Air Asia for discontinuing the service to Mumbai. Yes, it is inconvenient, but airlines will have their reason too. Airlines constantly take various decision to cut cost or maximize revenues. Air Asia has recently decided to fly to a cheaper airport- Avalon, some 75kms from Melbourne, instead of flying to a more popular Tullamarine airport. Air Asia has discontinued its service to Mauritius few years ago.  Chennai is back on Air Asia India’s map- now direct flights operate from Chennai to Bhubaneshwar and Bengaluru. Hopefully Air Asia will return to Mumbai when second airport gets ready.

Are you affected by this cancellation? What are you planning to do? Do share through comments below.