Which side of the plane to sit on, flying out of Mumbai?

If you are flying out of Mumbai and if you really like taking the window seat, a question often arises: What side of the plane should you sit on? Should you sit on the left side or the right side?

I have taken many flights from Mumbai's CSMIA airport, and I always make it a point that I block the window seat. But you must also remember that the side that you pick decides what you see. If you pick the left side, you will see the Sea Link and the skyline of South Mumbai. If you pick the right side, you have Madh Island and the creeks of Mumbai.

But there is also another thing to keep in mind. Mumbai has two runways. One is runway 09/27, which is the primary runway, and 80% of the time, you would be flying out of this runway. But at the same time, there is also Runway 14/32, which is the secondary runway. Sometimes, if you are flying out of this runway, the view that you get is very different.

If you are using the primary runway and it's a morning flight, it gives a very different view as compared to what you would see on an evening flight. A night departure shows you all of the city lights. So to pick my seat, my rule is simple. I first check whether the plane is going to take off and turn left or turn right.

How do you know that? You just have to figure out whether you are going south or north of Mumbai. If you are flying to something like Singapore, your plane is mostly going to turn left and take a U-turn. If you are going somewhere like London, your plane is not going to go left, but rather veer right and go towards the European continent.

And after I have checked the route, I choose my seat. If I were to look at the number of times I have flown out of Mumbai and the side of the plane that I have chosen, 90% of the time I have chosen the left seat.

This is because what you see when the plane takes off from the primary runway (the ceiling, the night lights of the Mumbai skyline, or the Mumbai skyline on a clear day) is something that you can definitely not replace with anything else. I have seen this view more than 100 times, but every time it gets me, I go for my phone and start clicking photos.

When I look at my album today, I have hundreds and hundreds of photos of exactly the same view. It's like a child in a candy store.So yes, the left side, flying out of the primary runway, is always the best view if you're flying out of Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport. See you next time.