Guest Review: GoAir - Go Get Pretty!

'GoAir' is an aviation venture of the Wadia group. The airline, launched in Nov-2005, operates across 11 destinations (mostly North and West India) with 474 weekly flights.
The airline operates with Airbus A320 and has the below mentioned specifications:

• Crew: 2 pilots, 4 flight attendants
• Capacity: 180 passengers
• Freight : 16 300 kg (35 900 lb)

With a spate of LCCs (low cost carriers) thronging the Indian Aviation scenario, a lot of competition is being seen. Since the era of pre Air Deccan when only 1 percent of Indian population air travelled in India, plenty of LCCs are now flying the Indian air taking the figure to 5 Percent. Indigo, Go Air, Kingfisher Red, Jet lite, Spice Jet constitute around 50% of the air traffic and they have only one USP – Cheap affordable air travel.

Weighing my options for travelling from Bangalore to Ahmedabad, I chose to travel by air rather than by trains. The reason being, a 3 Tier AC ticket in train was costing me 1800 INR and taking up my 36 hrs in the process while Go Air was offering me a ticket for 3000 INR. Being my first journey in Go Air, I decided to closely observe the airline in all quarters. This review is based on my experience of the flight taken from Bangalore to Ahmedabad on 9th May 2009.

I booked my ticket from the Go Air official website http://www.goair.in. My usual experience with other airlines is that whenever I book the tickets and give my cell number, I get a message with the flight details and flight confirmation number. Go Air chooses to send only an email, not that I am complaining but communicating to the customer through cell phone serves two purpose, one, you don’t have to take the print out of the ticket or remember the confirmation number before travelling and second, in case of rescheduling of the flight, the customers can be conveniently notified.

Upon reaching the Bangalore International Airport, I went straight to the Go Air counter to get the print of my ticket. The assistants at the Go Air Counters were not exactly suave and gorgeous (and I don’t believe they necessarily should be). The only thing that matters is prompt service and a smiling face and that was something that was not missing. After she reconfirmed my ticket number as "Yen pee ye five B yes" I finally went to check in my baggage. The attendants at the boarding counters were quite hospitable but inexperienced and badly dressed. There was no uniformity in the dresses of the attendants which looked a little less professional against the bright yellow uniforms of the Jet Airways employees. Even the ticket that I got had my name and seat numbers handwritten (All the airlines I have travelled have fully printed tickets). The one thing that I liked the most was the baggage limit. They allow 25 Kgs in the cargo and 7 Kgs infight. The flight was half an hour late but that could be because of the rainy weather. The plane was a standard Airbus 320 painted blue and white. The seats were nothing to boast about (Kingfisher employs leather covers) and the legspace was just like most of the LCCs (Indigo has few inches of extra legspace). There were two female airhostesses and a male host dressed in formals with a navy blue blazer. I strongly felt that they needed a uniform makeover to really stand out from the crowd. Water was not free on the flight and my request for a juice pack was turned down with an apology. But apart from that I was able to thoroughly enjoy my flight.

My verdict, not a bad flight to travel if it offers you the lowest fare but that would be the only advantage it enjoys. I would rather go to another LCC like Spicejet or Indigo if the fares do not differ by a large margin. I also felt that it had a relatively inexperienced crew as the attendants were quite jumpy. Go Air urgently requires a new USP to survive in this tough airline industry. Small changes like providing water (not necessarily bottled), bright uniforms, better tickets (they could employ advertisement on the back to cover the costs) and attractive airhostesses. A little difference can go a long way in retaining customer loyalty. Maybe the airline is learning the nuances of service the hard way and I would definitely like to try the airline again in near future to see the improvement if any.

Relyonreviews Rating: 3/5 miles (based soley on the above review and not on personal experience)

About the Reviewer: The blogger, Gaurang Ganatra, is a present Satyam employee and a prospective Nirma B-school grad. His interests include everything from cuddling a street dog to carrying out in-depth financial analysis of someone in Georgia.

Check out his 'jaw-breaking' humor at http://gregariousgary.blogspot.com/