Chennai Airport

✅ Trip Verified | I hope I never, ever have to step foot in Chennai Airport again! What a complete disaster of a place this is, utterly hateful and stressful experience from start to finish! Firstly to gain access to the terminal, you have to get past rude, officious security guards posted at each entrance. They demand to see your passport and a paper print out of the ticket, an electronic version or boarding pass will not do. After much pleading and intervention of Sri Lankan airline staff, they agreed to accept the electronic version of our ticket as proof. Twice we had to go through this as obviously we had no access to a printer being foreign tourists and nowhere did we get a warning this was a requirement until we checked in. What century are they living in when they refuse to accept an electronic ticket/boarding pass? Next the staff at security are possibly the rudest anywhere in the world. Horrid, miserable, angry woman pulled my carry-on aside for examination and just bellowed 'take, take it, take it, take it!' without even bothering to look at the contents. Absolutely disgusting attitude! Why pull it aside if she had no intention of even looking at it? It seemed like the only motivation was to pick a fight. Add to this.... Toilets are the filthiest I have ever seen with excrement all over seats, urine on floor etc. No Wi-Fi whatsoever, paid or otherwise as you need an Indian Mobile number to access it. Shops, poor as they are, are all unbelievably expensive and overpriced, twice as expensive as at Zurich Airport in Switzerland. Needless to say they were all empty of customers. The international terminal 2 departures, consists of vast areas of barren space with a few dirty looking seats dotted around, generally depressing and miserable looking. At arrivals, the border staff are as thick as mince. They kept looking at my expired visa from a previous visit 5 years ago, rather than the current one, even when I pointed it out to them. As such they claimed I didn't have a visa until a senior person intervened and 'found' the correct visa, the one I showed them multiple times. Once you leave the airport expect to be accosted by thousands of taxi drivers trying to scam you into paying £20 to the centre of Chennai. Best arrange a hotel pick up before leaving! We would have flown direct to Colombo if we had known how bad Chennai Airport was, horrible place and the staff are completely devoid of humanity. I feel lucky to have got through the place alive quite honestly, worst airport in the world!

Not Verified | The newly built international airport is dirty, the finish is poor, the cleaning staff are on their mobile phones or chatting, the toilets are dirty, the security is slow and the is manned by disinterested personnel. Overall it is probably the worst airport I have visited in the last 5 years. I hear there are plans to build another airport.

✅ Trip Verified | Came from DEL on domestic and departed to FRA from international terminal. Connectivity between terminals is a big pain area, specially if one has luggage to push around. The travellators don't allow for trolleys to go on them, walking all the way is the only option available. Further, international terminal is nothing but a mess and disarray. Gates are scattered far and in between. Too few food options and so called food court is full of pigeons fluttering around. Absolute mismanagement, small domestic terminals are better managed than this.

✅ Trip Verified | The worst experience with transfer I ever had. Arrived to T4 from Sri Lanka expected to transit out with Lufthansa with unfortunate layover of 10h. I was left 3.5h sitting in corridor in front of security check with explanation that I have to wait LU staff that will not come earlier the in couple of hours to pass me through despite I had valid boarding pass for my next flight! Moreover in Business class nobody cared at all no information and they even taken my passport for whole this time. Once this nightmare was over I found that behind security its even worse, it looks like after some natural disaster, all shops closed halfway destroyed, terrible lounge with one toilet in sanitary condition that would not allow to enter, never ever would take any transit through this nightmare, god bless I did not travel with kids this time

✅ Trip Verified | Very Poor Maintenance of toilets and Cleanliness. The airport didn't even deserve to a domestic arrival. Foreign nationals actually hesitate to step into restrooms or touch the walls. The Air conditioning is also so low and baggage receiving time is taking minimum of 1.5 hours. In such a case Tamilnadu can never promote tourism having so much of cultural spots like old temples and architecture. The toilets directions had not symbols if they are not able to read English they cannot go to the restrooms. The international standards are not maintained anywhere including the people communication skills.

✅ Trip Verified | A dilapidated interior, nothing attractive and staff without any empathy. Catering is nothing, renovation works everywhere and passengers eating while sitting on the floor. Lovely to depart from Chennai!

✅ Trip Verified | Worst airport anyone can find. Especially international arrival area. Dirty walls and floor. Baggage claim belt , too much rattling noise. Damaged trolleys. Big disgrace. Exiting and coming of airport is complete chaos.

✅ Trip Verified | Dirty, unorganised and terrible airport facilities. Half of shops are closed, people sitting on the ground and eating, boarding without any structure or organisation. Ground staff shouting around.

Not Verified | Immigration on arrival was ridiculously slow. On departure the check-in, Immigration and security was even slower. It took an hour and a half standing in queues. The airport itself is a disgrace.

Not Verified | Arriving into Chennai International Terminal is the worst experience. The toilets in the arrival hall are dirty, stinky and unhygienic. The luggage takes ages to come on the belt and the local transport system of Taxi or Auto is a total horror story. Have travelled to some very small international airports in more backward countries and I can confidently write that Chennai Airport is the worst I have seen till date.