Flying within India is easy at the big airports and a different exercise at the small ones

The network is hub-shaped and it shows in the routings

Domestic aviation in India grew around a handful of large hubs, and most of the smaller cities connect to the network through one of them rather than to each other. That produces routings which look absurd on a map — two towns a few hundred kilometres apart joined by a flight through a metro in the opposite direction.

It also means the connection is where the risk sits. A delay into a hub can be absorbed if there is another flight later in the day, and it cannot if the onward leg operates once daily, which is common on the regional routes.

Direct regional services do exist and more have been added over the years under schemes intended to connect smaller airports. Their frequency is thin, and a route that appeared last year may not be operating this year, which is worth checking rather than assuming.

Security and terminal entry work slightly differently here

Indian airports check identity and a valid booking at the terminal door, so you can’t walk into a departure building the way you can in some countries, and anyone seeing you off usually cannot come in with you. The name on the identity document needs to match the booking.

Inside, the security process is thorough and the queues at busy hubs at peak hours are long. Hand baggage rules are enforced fairly strictly, cabin bag limits are real rather than notional, and some items that pass elsewhere — power banks, certain batteries, sharp objects of any size — are treated seriously.

The specific rules on what may travel in cabin baggage, on identity documents and on check-in cut-offs are set by the regulator and the airlines and they change, so the current published position is the only reliable source. Assume less time than you think you have, particularly at the largest terminals in the early morning.

A small airport is a different institution

At a regional field with one or two movements a day, the terminal opens for the flight and closes afterwards. There may be a single check-in desk, one security line, a small waiting area and very little to eat. Staff are often shared with the ground handling.

The advantages are real. The whole process from kerb to gate can take a fraction of the time a metro terminal requires, and there is no ambiguity about where anything is. But the schedule is unforgiving, because if that flight is cancelled the next one is tomorrow.

Ground transport is the other consideration. Small airports frequently have no organised taxi arrangement beyond whatever turns up for the arriving flight, and if the flight is late those vehicles may have gone. Arranging a pickup in advance is not a luxury at these places.

Weather cancels flights on a predictable calendar

Two seasonal patterns account for most weather disruption. Winter fog over the northern plains reduces visibility below operating limits for hours at a time in December and January, and the monsoon produces thunderstorms and heavy rain that close runways temporarily and flood the roads to them.

Airports in hill and coastal areas have their own constraints. Some sit on short runways with terrain around them and operate under restrictions that make afternoon weather a real factor, which is why so many mountain flights are scheduled early and cancelled late.

The general defence is the same in each case. Fly early in the day during a disrupted season, avoid same-day tight connections onto anything you cannot miss, and keep a rail or road fallback in mind for the legs where an overnight delay would break the trip.

When the flight is the wrong tool

For journeys of a few hundred kilometres between well-connected cities, the flight often loses on total time once airport transfers, the check-in cut-off and security are counted honestly. An overnight train covers the same ground while you sleep and puts you in the middle of the destination city rather than on its outskirts.

Flying earns its keep on the long diagonals — the corners of a very large country, where a train journey is measured in days — and for reaching places where the road approach is genuinely difficult, such as some of the northeastern and island destinations.

Baggage is the quiet third factor. Trains are indifferent to how much you are carrying and airlines are not, which matters more than people expect on a trip involving purchases, equipment or a family. It is not the deciding factor often, but it deserves a place in the comparison.