Indigo is most expensive airline I flew this year!

This year, 2024, I have taken 29 flights across 3 continents (Europe, Africa, Asia), 11 countries (India, Taiwan, Singapore, Vietnam, Egypt, Kazhakstan, Greece, Romania, Albania, Malta, Italy) through 9 different airlines (Kuwait Air, Indigo, Fly Arystan, Air Asia, Singapore Airlines, Etihad, Agean, Ryanair, WizzAir).

Of all the flights I took, I tried to calculate which airline is the most expensive. The parameter I used to decide this is the cost of ticket price I paid divide by number of flying hours, to decide how much each of these airlines are costing me for 1 hour of flying time.

In this method, I find India's Indigo is the most expensive airline I flew this year, costing me upto 5000 INR per 1 hour of flying. Maybe Air India would have matched Indigo on this, just that I didn't have any flights with Air India in 2024.

Fly Arystan is the cheapest- but sadly that airline has very few flights and getting that 7400 return ticket is very difficult now. So it is a one off case, not very easy to get all the time.

Air Asia still stays one of the cheapest airlines to fly internationally- if you get lucky and can spot good deals, you will get tickets costing about 1200-1300 INR per hour of flying, which is a good deal under current circumstances.

Singapore Airlines was the most expensive ticket I bought this year- 34000 INR return Mumbai to Taipei. I could have visited Taipei on VietJet Air or Air Asia for about 27000 INR onwards. That extra 7000 goes for inflight meals, entertainment, amenities,baggage allowance (I didn't use) etc. The flight to Taipei was also very long, so on a per hour basis, Singapore airline ticket costed me just 1416 INR per hour, which is an amazing deal for a full service airline. (Last year's ticket to Busan was 30k and 2 hours extra flying, even cheaper.

Rest of the ticket details you can see in image below.

Most regional flights within Europe on EasyJet, RyanAir, WizzAir etc cost about 2000-3000 INR per hour of flying, if planned few months in advance, except some high demand tourist destinations like Santorini.

Indigo (or rather India's domestic flight tickets) are most expensive, costing as much as 5000 INR per hour of flying or more. Some destination like Gangtok costs 60k return from BLR, for a total of 6 hours of flying, costing 10000 INR per hour of flying.

Except a few high competition sections like Delhi Mumbai, BLR Mumbai, HYD Mumbai, most flights to Tier 2 cities cost a bomb in India, impacting domestic tourism and travel.

What do you think about this?

Air Asia Kochi Da Nang 2024 Experience

Flew Air Asia after an year. Previous trip was BLR-DMK in August 2023. Recent trip was Kochi to Da Nang via Kuala Lumpur.

Booking: I had to book the ticket on Cleartrip instead of Air Asia official website as Cleartrip was cheaper. Air Asia official website is lot pain now to hunt for cheapest flights. They don't show price for all days + all non Air Asia flights are also mixed up.

Inflight food: Air Asia is now advertising in flight food as "cheaper than airport". A bowl of Hyderabad Biriyani costs 19 Ringgit with Air Asia. Vegetable Biriyani inside KLIA 2 (Taste of India restaurant) costs 20 MYR but includes a papad, few side dishes and marginally more quantity. 

However crew didn't have stock of Hyd Biriyani on DAD-KUL Leg. They were serving vegetarian noodle as well, but this is not listed on the in flight menu. At WH Smith store inside KLIA2 this cup noodle costs MYR 6.

On time: Two of our flights were 30 minutes late- not a big issue.

Load factor: All flights were full. For DAD-KUL leg my friend got to check-in her cabin baggage for free as flight was full and cabin space was limited.

Air Asia operates about 3 flights daily between Kochi and Kuala Lumpur and 3 flights daily between Da Nang and Kuala Lumpur- so lots of flight options to chose from.

If not Air Asia your next best bet to reach Da Nang is VietJet Air which will connect you via Saigon.

Seat assignment: Got 1 window, 2 aisle and 1 middle seat for the 4 legs, as I chose not to pay for the seat.

Overall experience was standard. Good to fly with Air Asia again. Hopefully these return to their pre covid pricing soon. I had flown to Japan for 16k return. Now for 17k I could go only till Vietnam.