Cochin Airport

Small but clean airport. Things move reasonably fast with not much hassle. Duty free options are limited but the prices are reasonable. Adequate food and beverage services. Immigration officers could do with a smile on their faces.

I flew out of Cochin to Doha on Qatar Airways. QA told me to arrive at the airport 45 minutes ahead of flight time as I was flying business class. Fortunately I arrived more than 2 hours ahead which turned out to be barely enough time. On arrival at 6.30 am there was a huge slowly-moving line just to get in the international terminal. Two uniformed guards were slowly checking every boarding pass and passport. Just inside the door was an identical performance with another guard checking the same documents! As expected QA check-in was flawless. Immigration involved a slow line. At security everyone needed a body scan. The departure lounge when reached was surprisingly large and clean -- which was needed to recover from the entry process.

I flew in from JFK via New Delhi and then to Cochin. It took about 45 minutes for the luggage to arrive we were the only arriving flight in the middle of the night. I had to go the rest room its dirty and the floor had water all over. The domestic side of the airport is severely lacking with regards to facilities and cleanliness.

Surprised by the efficiency and friendliness of all personnel - immigration customs airline check-in and duty-free staff were uniformly courteous on arrival and departure. The toilets were clean. Departure lounge seemed spacious but that may have been because ours was the only international flight at the time.

Clean and neat terminal. Immigration department needs to increase their staff. Departure lounge is big clean quiet and facing onto the runway also comfortable seating arrangements. Big parking area with flowers and plants. Large duty free shop area with reasonable price. Staff all seemed smiling and friendly. Overall very good experience.

Flew in from KUL with AirAsia into Cochin airport. At the immigration counter the immigration guy even had a sense of humor. Once out of immigration and down to baggage hall there was a duty free for incoming passengers. After collecting bags arrived outside and there were no hordes of people asking for your attention. In fact no one approached us - we quietly queued for a taxi service (at the official counter) the driver came near the arrivals and took us to the taxi. Its a wonderful airport without hassles that are normally associated with travelling in India.

Very clean spacious terminal. There was increased security with screening prior to entry into the terminal that took about 10-15 minutes. Once in the International Terminal baggage screening check-in emigration and security was all completed in less than 30 minutes. The departure lounge is comparable to any international terminal in aesthetics quite spacious quiet with five gates/aerobridges wall-to-ceiling glass facing the tarmac and runway and very comfortable seating with good snack outlets at a reasonable price and a large duty-free area. Staff all over the airport seemed very friendly with the sole exception of the security at the entrance who were more curt and to the point. Overall a pleasant and relaxing experience.

A clean modern airport but managed by incompetents. It took 2.5hrs from entering the airport to getting into the departure lounge. Increased security is the excuse but it does boil down to very bad management. Massive queues in the initial security re luggage (45 minutes) check in with Qatar was fairly quick (15 minutes) followed by very slow moving long queues at immigration control with staff working at a snail's pace ( 60 minutes) followed by personal and hand luggage security checks (30 minutes which involved manual tick sheets where each passenger had to be marked off involving 3 staff collectively looking down a list. As a frequent traveller I see many airports and this has to be the slowest and most badly managed airports.

Check-In. I was heading out on Qatar Airways to Doha and was asked by the carrier to report 4 hours in advance because of 'heightened security'. I will go to the grave wondering why they ever did that. Because since my flight was at 5 am I reached the airport at 1 am. The check-in counter was not opened till 2.30 am. Yes 1.5 hours spent sitting at the limited seating in front of check-in. Immigration - for an airport that has maybe 7-8 international flights leaving in a span of 3 hours in the early morning there are four immigration queues. The wait was endless and the x-ray screening process was confusing. I put my carry-on bags in one queue and then have to go for through a metal scanner two rows down. I don't get it: If you operate a process 7 days a week 52 weeks a year - doesn't it occur to anyone involved that there might be a better way.

Surprisingly big clean modern terminal but getting through it was a joke. From arrival at the airport to first clearing baggage screening then check-in immigration customs security and further odd checks took an hour and a half. Our flight to Dubai was delayed half an hour simply because other passengers were stuck in the bottleneck.