After reading most if the reviews about the Indian Airlines / Air India, I guess most of the people had bad or average experience with the National airliners . As per most, the services / facilities / food was comparatively OK . wel I am not agreeing tho. These are my views:
*Punctuality**:
I have travelled with the IA to Bangkok( feb 2008) and unlike few MS members, I found the flight on time while going to BKK and on return aswel . With Air India I had opportunity to fly on Mum - Osaka flight and even that was on time.
so no issues with the punctuality . and I can bet on the fact that no airliner has 100% record on this. I have travelled on almost every indian airline service providers and few foreign one also .
*Food**:
Food served on most of the airlines is catered by certain hotels.( I may be wrong here . pls correct if so) Food I found on IA and AI was OK . may not be great but not bad for sure. Taste can be very subjective topic. so its for one to decide it he/she liked o not .
*In Flight service**:
In flight service can be variable if your flight has good mix of white and indians. You can find ppl more attentive to white, may be in attempt to enhance their opinion towards the company . Indians can feel a bit left out in that case.
On Air India flight I found after serving booze, when most of people Doze off, you can strike conversation with **Flight attendants** or **cabin crew** . I was told many stories of how ppl behave( more abt it l8r) . I would give in flight service 7/10 to these airlines.
Air Hostess is the only thing that might hold u back . Being Sarkari company they have to accomodate all these over age ppl .:( Here competition scores big time .
*Cost**:
The biggest factor in choosing any airline is cost of the tickets. which is very competitive when it comes to AI/IA .
*Conclusion**:
Unlike many who said AI / IA lacks so many things, I would give thumbs up to these airliners. Unless u want to see very pretty airhostess .
cheers