I have flown with Indian Airlines about ten times in the last year. The pros are that the tickets are pretty cheap, it flies places others don’t go, and (Indian taxpayer close your eyes) you can almost always beg the staff into changing your ticket without penalty etc., when other airlines wouldn’t consider it. But the cons are many and have been listed on this website. 1) the equipment tends to be very old. This must be a safety risk even if the pilots tend to be more experienced than those with the private airlines 2) the on-time and cancellation record is very poor 3) the whole operation is like a business school caee study on the evils of nationalized industries -- the planes are usually dirty, the staff are frequently surly, the website is usually not functioning, in total, you can tell that no-one’s job or profits are on the line in this operation. There are other odd things, too, like the legroom in some flights which is sufficient for a five year old child, and a very spotty record of phoning up to advise customers of rescheduling or flight cancellation. I have had IA phone up and tell me a plan is going to be rescheduled ten minutes later, and not phone me up when they cancelled the whole flight.