Flying in India

Update: Since I wrote this lens, the Indian airlines industry has gone through a bout of consolidation, with Air Deccan, the original pioneer of low cost flying, being swallowed up by Kingfisher, and Sahara being bought over by Jet Airways and rechristened as Jetlite.
There is no doubt that the Indian airlines industry is in for a spot of turbulence in the days to come.
Update July 2010: Just to illustrate my point about turbulence further, here are two articles dated the same day, one on how Paramount Airways is on the verge of losing its licence because it's flying only one aircraft, and another which makes no mention of Paramount's problems but talks about how it is going to induct 10 aircraft this year.

The Backstory

The boom in Indian aviation can be encapsulated in the story of Air Deccan, the first truly low cost carrier to hit the Indian skies in August 2003. The airline which began operations with one aircraft and 4 flights a day, now operates over 300 flights daily, with a fleet of forty aircraft. Air Deccan was closely followed by Spicejet, Indigo, GoAir, Kingfisher and Paramount. Considering there are already existing players such as Indian, Jet Airways and Sahara, the Indian air traveller has never had it so good. That's because most of the new players are no frill airlines(with the exception of Kingfisher which describes itself as a "full service-true value airline"). This means they strive to provide the cheapest tickets possible by cutting down on overhead costs by selling tickets over the Internet  as well as providing the bare necessities onboard. Smoked salmon is not on the menu on these flights:-) However, the legacy carriers like Jet and Indian, which are full service airlines (meaning you get food and other amenities on board) have also had to drop prices, so if you book early enough on these airlines, you end up getting at least some cake to both have and to eat, as opposed to not getting any cake at all.

Booking on these airlines can either done directly on their respective sites, with Indigo even providing a solution for your cell phone, or through the array of online travel agencies, comprehensively covered in this lens. I've also talked about the pros and cons of booking directly or through these OTAs on the other lens so I won't repeat myself here.

One thing to look out for when booking on the LCCs is their re-scheduling and cancellation policies which vary from airline to airline. Air Deccan's rescheduling and cancellation policies can be found here. Spicejet's policies can be found in their terms of carriage while Indigo's can be found in their conditions of carriage. GoAir also has a  clearcut cancellation policy which can be found here while Kingfisher terms of carriage can be found here. I have given links to the appropriate pages because these policies keep changing depending on many factors. At the moment, most of these airlines give credit shells in lieu of refunds on cancellation , though that policy might change on pressure from the regulatory authorities...on the other hand, online travel agencies give refunds for tickets purchased on these airlines after reducing a fixed amount, so, if you are not sure of your plans, you should consider booking through these agencies

These new airlines have suffered from certain teething problems, including erratic schedules, but most of them are tech-savvy and one is  kept informed of any delays through a variety of means, including SMS, email and call-centres. One can also keep track of flight arrival/departures through sites such as flightstats.com

There has also been a severe shortage of pilots resulting in most of the planes being manned by foreign pilots with a hazy knowledge of English. Some have described this as a recipe for disaster and one can only hope that the government is doing its job properly, as regulator.