Mumbai Airport Passenger Reviews and Mumbai Airport Traveller Reports

PAGE 1 2

MUMBAI AIRPORT customer review :  27 August 2010 by Nigel Menezes   (Indonesia)

Customer Rating :  3/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

Having travelled alone, and also with kids, you get preferential treatment when you travel with infants. The airport staff lets you bypass any queue and you get access direct to the boarding lounge. Travelling alone, the only hitch is when you are passing security, they can be quite rude in speaking and checking your baggage. The boarding hall is a big improvement. Costs of things are quite expensive, but decor in departure is quite nice. I'd rate departure poor. Arrival a disaster. As soon as you get off the plane, you smell mouldy carpets/ walls . They have less immigration counters and really long lines: why cant they open more immigration counters for quick passenger flow: Just before getting out of the airport, they have a taxi stand that blocks the exit. Hence passenger commotion as people with trolleys waiting in the taxi queue block the people want to exit the airport. They should move this taxi booth to another location and also have more options for pre paid taxi booths. The last thing you need when you arrive from a long flight is wait at a taxi booth for 30 mins. I'd rate arrival poor.

MUMBAI AIRPORT customer review :  20 August 2010 by A Walker   (UK)

Customer Rating :  5/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

Flew into the domestic terminal and connected with an international flight. Airport was impressive and more than I expected from the reputation! The flight was scheduled for 4am which reflects the lack of queues, but airport was clean, retail areas were spacious and there were fantastic recliner seating areas at each boarding gate and coffee shops nearby. The duty free area seemed similar to that at Dubai Terminal 3 and it seems the airport are trying to improve their image. I also liked that there were highly visible emergency defibrillators located at regular intervals throughout the airport. Other airports would do well to follow suit. Staff were lively, polite and helpful. Have to mention one of the police/security guys at the front of the airport who went out in the monsoon rain to fetch our dimwit of a cab driver who had got lost (don't ask me how a taxi driver gets lost at an airport complex...). Really did appreciate that personal touch and not something that I would expect in Europe/US regions. I can't comment on what the airport is like when it's busy (I note concerns of other reviewers) but based on what I saw during its quiet period, I would be happy to fly through here again.

MUMBAI AIRPORT customer review :  18 August 2010 by G French   (UK)

Customer Rating :  2/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

The transfer system is a disgrace. We arrived at Mumbai at 11pm but it was 12.50pm by the time we got through the security. The system was shambolic, with hundreds of passengers being shunted through six security checks (2 for women and four for men). Nobody was supervising the queue, several were worried about missing connecting flights. We had been screened at Chennai and had no opportunity to leave the airport so it is entirely beyond me as to why it needs to be done again. Not only that but why body-scan people who walked through the electronic checks without any problem. I cannot recommend the airport and have no wish to visit it again.

MUMBAI AIRPORT customer review :  3 August 2010 by John Gardner   (UK)

Customer Rating :  1/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

It was my misfortune to transit through Mumbai . Everyone was treated as if they were an arriving passenger and had to go through personal and hand luggage screening. I am an easy- going person, but was shocked and angered at the way I was treated and dealt with by most of the staff. Prospective transit passengers should be aware that women and men are segregated and dealt with separately. Leaving from gate 3 for Heathrow was a most disconcerting experience. The waiting room (for that is all it is) caters for gates 1A, 1B, 1C, 2A, 2B and 3. Loudspeaker announcements are made at the same time as airline representatives shouting for missing passengers - if you can hear anything at all, you're lucky. I shall do everything in my power to avoid travelling through Mumbai in the future and shall discourage others from doing the same.

MUMBAI AIRPORT customer review :  28 July 2010 by Anish Patil   (Netherlands)

Customer Rating :  4/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

The airport has transformed in recent years - it was quite clean, less noisy and chaotic and a decent airport experience. Quite a change from few years back. The only gripe was the traffic/chaos outside the airport. Due to security reasons, the traffic police just allows one row of vehicles to the airport departures, due to which there was a huge traffic jam and this combined with the sea of people saying good byes to their loved ones means a huge chaos. But once inside the airport, it all changes. I did not have to queue anywhere (checkin, immigration, security) for more than 10 minutes. I think within 20-30 minutes from check in, I was at the Lufthansa lounge. I did a brief walk through the airport before boarding and saw nice restaurants, cafes and duty free. Overall, I was quite satisfied with the experience.

MUMBAI AIRPORT customer review :  17 July 2010 by Alex Davies   (Hong Kong)

Customer Rating :  3/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

Duty free selection on alcohol was good, not so much on cigarettes. The currency exchange in the international departure area is quite funny, the woman advised me that the place did not have a good rate, and that I should exchange when getting back to HK. The whole security process is highly complicated, one has to get a stamp at each checkpoint, which leaves you with about 4 stamps in the end. Overall, not bad for India's economic situation.

MUMBAI AIRPORT customer review :  21 June 2010 by Steve Jones   (UK)

Customer Rating :  2/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

Was at Chhatrapati Shivaji recently and shocked by the state of the place. I understand they are building a new terminal so this can't come quick enough. I was in transit with Jet Airways and found the experience painful. The extensive queues are extremely long and the security checking inconsistent. We found that duty free was being confiscated at random. Some people getting through with liquids galore. In some cases, they were even confiscating dry products. What then shocked me is the fact that the airport operates like some seedy back alley part of Mumbai. Being a smoker, I asked official staff where to smoke and was first pointed to the toilet. Confused, I then asked another member of staff and was further escorted to a janitor's closet where the janitor was waiting and said: "five dollar, you smoke here" - in a storage cupboard! Not convinced, I then asked somebody else and was pointed to the restaurant, likewise where they are charging passengers to smoke illicitly in a storage room. I refused of course. BOM is a non smoking airport no matter what they tell you or where they lead you. At one point, paying for duty free took 15 minutes, no reason, just lots of paper work, fiddling around with my documents and so on. It was all very suspicious. Finally, we ordered some KFC at the counter having contracted Delhi Belly on the outward journey - thinking that deep fried chicken would be the most sanitary option. While we waited for food, an 8 inch long rat jumped onto the counter chased by a member of staff - ran along the counter, over the cash desk and up a wall. This was much to the amusement of the staff who gladly went on serving food without even washing their hands. In summary, BOM is not a good option for transiting, which is a shame since India now boasts a couple of good airlines offering attractive transit deals. I will be avoiding them personally.

MUMBAI AIRPORT customer review :  8 May 2010 by Anil Sinanan   (UK)

Customer Rating :  3/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

As a frequent user of the Mumbai Airport, I agree with the general comments here. As with things in India, it just needs someone with a brain to sort it out. If you are in the BA club lounge, stay there. The outside bars/food are overpriced. If you are a smoker, go to the Celebrations bar but they will make you buy a drink first (beer £7!). How is this bar allowed given that it is a no smoking airport! Never let your credit card out of your sight as a few passengers were complaining about misuse on their prior visits. The duty-free shops are bland with US$ prices: no Indian whisky. Presumably, Indian whisky is considered too downmarket! As for the repeated robotic security checks, just grin and bear it: you need those stamps on your luggage tag ! As many flights leave 0230ish, I found the frequent roundup by airline staff useful especially as I was nodding off. Lastly, can anyone clarify if this 'no re-entry within 2 months' tourist visa rule is actually enforced?

MUMBAI AIRPORT customer review :  4 May 2010 by I Watson   (Thailand)

Customer Rating :  1/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

Transit through Mumbai is a nightmare, flying from Heathrow to Bangkok via Mumbai with 2 young children. We queued nearly 3 hours to clear security control, only to find that they had 3 x- ray machines for all transit passengers. Staff rude and unhelpful to a point that they were joking at the discomfort of the passengers. I will never fly through Mumbai again and would advise others to avoid as well.

MUMBAI AIRPORT customer review :  4 May 2010 by C Croker   (UK)

Customer Rating :  1/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

I have visited Mumbai once as a visitor to India and twice in transit, the transits being in the past week. Another planned visit as a tourist to India has now been cancelled for ever. My experience last weekend and 4 weeks prior to that have made me make that decision. After being well and truly frisked at Bangkok I arrived at Mumbai expecting security to be almost nil for transit passengers. How wrong. Not only was it a very slow and "thorough(?)" process, it was carried out by the most rude and ignorant people I have had the misfortune to meet at any airport in the world. Not only that, but about 5 other checks on boarding pass and passport before being allowed on the plane, again by rude and uncaring people. Complete and utter overkill and seemingly designed to deter people from air travel - has certainly deterred me from ever travelling to or via Mumbai ever again.

MUMBAI AIRPORT customer review :  27 April 2010 by A Androsoff   (Canada)

Customer Rating :  1/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

Worst airport experience ever! Even though we were just transit passengers who in other airports would have been pre-cleared, hundreds of us waited for over two hours to go through security again. Hall was hot and crowded and arguments broke out periodically among passengers and staff. The security staff were rumored to be executing an intentional work slow-down. Indeed, they seemed to have smirks on their faces and worked excruciatingly slowly, even though old ladies in wheelchairs were clearly suffering from the wait. Everybody was crowding trying to maintain their place. People were videoing the commotion with their cellphones and cameras. Those who complained were simply smiled at. Their attitudes and the overall commotion made me fear corruption and theft of my laptop or iPhone and I teamed with another passenger to watch each others' stuff through security. I never thought I would feel that way in the secure zone of an airport. Flight was delayed two hours to wait for the transit passengers to go through security. We left on a shuttle bus into the same zone we had just come from. Worth paying extra to avoid this airport.

MUMBAI AIRPORT customer review :  7 April 2010 by G Wong   (Australia)

Customer Rating :  1/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

I rate my departure from Mumbai airport a few days ago as the worst I have experienced for departure queues and security queues. As I was checking in with SQ business class, I thought that arriving 2 hrs before the flight would be more than sufficient time - but I needed nearly all of that time to get through the queues for departure. Long queues at the entry doors to the terminal for documentation checks, with no concept of "queuing" for many people. An even longer queue for the security/carry on baggage x-ray. Disorganised and not able to cope with the volume of departing passengers. Once in the transit/departure area, this seemed to have been recently upgraded with reasonable shops and facilities. The only Star Alliance lounge was Lufthansa, and again this was too small to cope with the number of passengers. Definitely allow for additional time to navigate the traffic to the airport and for the very slow and tedious departure processing to be able to make your flight on time.

MUMBAI AIRPORT customer review :  22 February 2010 by N McDermott   (Hong Kong)

Customer Rating :  1/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

The most annoying airport I have yet to find to transit through and catch a connecting flight. Normally two hours would easily be enough time to disembark one plane and be at the gate ready to board the next. Not at Mumbai. First you are made to wait with other passengers who have just disembarked your plane in a loud, crowded immigration hall. You are then led upstairs and along corridors to transit security. Yes, you have to go through security again. So, they need to check your ticket. Then men and women are divided into separate queues from where couples can't even see each other. In these queues people are stressed and often looking to push ahead of you. As well as this, if you are in the male queue you cannot see the end of the queue as it goes around a corner so you have no idea how long it will all take. The security queue took well over an hour to pass through on both times I had the misfortune to enter it, and both times I only just made my connecting flight. Furthermore, the security officials make it their job to frisk everyone, whether you set the scanner off or not and go through a tedious process of stamping a label you have to attach to your bag and your boarding pass to show you have been through security. After showing your boarding pass and passport to the airline officials at the gate you can then be stopped by further security personnel on the way to the plane who wish to check your documents again, just to see if you have been through security or not. So tedious. I will never transit through Mumbai ever again.

MUMBAI AIRPORT customer review :  19 January 2010 by N McDermott   (UK)

Customer Rating :  1/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

Has to be the worst airport I have visited, regards organization of passengers through security, cleanliness and general lack of expertise. Organization of passengers through security or the lack of any order is quite scary, intimidating and dangerous as crowds push and people are shouting to make progress.