Originally Posted by
iahphx
When you say that "only 9W and AI fly out of the same airport as international airlines," I assume you mean out of the same "terminal," right? So I'd need additional time to switch terminals if I wanted to make a connection. How much time is a good idea (not that I think I'll do this however)? There is only one "airport" in Delhi, right?
Yeah, it's the same airport, but different terminals. They are about 10 kilometers away IIRC, so 20-30 minutes without traffic in a taxi. With bags, etc., it's a massive headache, although not nearly as bad as intl-domestic connections at BOM.
Airlines of India also operate most flights 98%+, but that statistic only accounts for cancellations within 24 hours of departure. Spicejet in particular has not been able to maintain schedule integrity recently, with many schedule changes being made without warning 2-3 weeks before departure. Another deceptive thing about the statistics is flights can be delayed by many hours, but they will still show as operated.
I would not recommend being on the last flight of the day when connecting to an international flight.
The LCCs will rebook you onto the next flight on their airline (probably too late) or offer a refund, while the FSCs (AI I am familiar with, but I'd imagine 9W is similar) also would do things like reroute you on another airline or put you up in a hotel in the case of irregular operations.