Delhi Airport

My wife and I arrived at Delhi airport in the early hours of the morning, eventually worked out you needed to be in the "E Visa" queues not the regular one. The usual non engaging immigration officer, once through that your passport is checked again within 10 steps of leaving the immigration officer. Not a terrible arrival but could be better. The departure was awful, we couldn't even get into the terminal as we didn't have our e-ticket (I don't have a phone) and hadn't printed it out as I'd checked in online. The security officer was rude and unhelpful other than to tell us to go to an entrance further down. We eventually were able to work out that we had to go to a desk inside the end entrance (it's blocked off from the rest of the terminal) the staff on the desk allowed me to access my e-mail and we then printed out our e-ticket and accessed the terminal. The food in the terminal was dire, what they passed off as "American breakfast" would be laughable if it weren't so expensive. The staff were so unhelpful. We managed to board and get out. It seemed you could only access the Wi-Fi with an Indian mobile phone number.

✅ Verified Review | Transiting in Delhi is just a disaster. Delhi Airport auto proclaims itself the best airport (of what?), this is just even more outrageous because they are far worst than any airports I have been to. I have flown over 300000 miles per year for the past 10 years. Avoid this airport as much as you can. Arriving from Bangkok I had to transit via New Delhi on my way to Milan for business. We had to walk 2 kilometres before arriving at the transit area, where security screening was in force, which is good, only if this was not a 1 hour process with rude and unaware staff. The whole airport is just shabby because of lack of care and toilets are dirty just because they aren't cleaning it up properly. Once inside the terminal of my connecting flight, bad luck, 5 hours delay. Nothing to do with the airport but spending 5 hours in that terminal showed me the worst of it. Again, all the staff: lounge, shops, restaurants are just so impolite, rude and useless. One of the lounge staff asked me to take on a survey to rate the lounge, which I did, once completed the guy came back to me and asked me to change few of the ratings and add up more positive comments. I have asked him if it was normal to force customers to write what they want and not what they have experienced. He left without a smile. The ground staff wanted to check my passport 2 hours before boarding, I have asked why? They failed to provide a valid reason except fainting to do something useful for so much delay, I simply refused and told them I would hand out my passport once the boarding would start. Everything is over priced, we're being ripped of at every purchase. Food is so poor, come on, we're in India, choice should be large, tastes amazing! Well, get ready to have only junk food. And the best is the wifi! Forget a 10 MB file to be sent - except if you have 5 hours to kill. Delhi airport, please stay humble, send your managers to Singapore, Hong-Kong, Bangkok, Shanghai, Melbourne, Haneda, Seoul, Amsterdam, Montreal etc and see by yourself what does a good airport mean. And please get rid of your auto proclaimed "best airport" award.

✅ Verified Review | Arrival is painful - as previously pointed out. If you have an e-tourist visa, be sure to keep walking all the way to the right and do not get into any of the other lines for Foreign Passports. Immigration staff apparently hate their jobs and don't care if you have been on a long flight that arrives in the middle of the night - they will make every excuse to keep you standing at the counter as long as possible (and the system for getting finger prints requires many many attempts). On departure, be sure to use an ATM outside the airport (if you are going e.g. to Bhutan, where they accept Indian rupees) because the ones inside are even less reliable than those elsewhere in India the security staff again treat you with contempt - after the very long wait to get into the curtained cubicle, the inspector threw my boarding pass on a chair and when finished with her inspection, simply glared at it and pointed to go out - I guess talking would be too much of a strain. It is an improvement over the last time I was in India 35+ years ago, but no picnic (actually, that's a good idea - bring a picnic with you, and then maybe you won't starve while waiting for immigration and security).

✅ Verified Review | Having traveled worldwide, I believe IGI is far better than many airports in US and Europe. The only challenge is with the Immigration officers who can never smile at the passengers. The queue at the Immigration can be awful and is expected to take 30-45 minutes to clear that. Beside that the airport is world class with all the basics and modern look.

✅ Verified Review | I flew in and out New Delhi Int'l and Domestic airports several times in September. The new airport is good but they need to improve their system considering they claim it as the best airport. I flew domestic with Indian Airlines and after queueing in a long queue for security check for 20 minutes, at the end they told me that we were in the wrong place, we should have queued at the international security check. Time was limited for us and we had to run to change. No sign, no information from anyone that specific for Indian Airlines domestic we have to go to international security check. Plus with my father, he is old, he had to run behind me to find our gate which changed and it was quite far away. When we arrived it was only to find that the flight was delayed. They need to put a signboard for this because it didn't happen to only us, but to a few other passengers as well. Security check for the men took forever.

Delhi airport we found very efficient, although food prices expensive by Indian standards. Two important pieces of advice on arrival if you have a etourist visa there is a separate counter to the far right of the arrivals hall and you need to fill in a immigration card - don't queue in the foreign passport queue if you have a evisa. On departure ensure you have your booking printed off with your names on the printout otherwise you won't even get into the terminal.

✅ Verified Review | I flew from Lucknow to Delhi and unlike other airports in India Delhi has a whole pier for domestic airports with aerobridges and a separate section for international ones. The airport is huge and is very spacious definitely one of the best I have experience.

✅ Verified Review | As a frequent business traveller to India, I have been amazed at Delhi Airport claiming that it has been voted the best airport in the World. Now I note it is claiming it has been voted the best airport in the World for the second year running! I can only imagine that it must have been by the management at Delhi Airport or people that have not visited any other airport. In my opinion it offers one of the worst passenger experiences anywhere in the World. A good airport should be efficient, easy to navigate through, functional and clean – Delhi falls over on each of these points. Even transferring from the domestic to the international terminal is an experience most travellers would only want to do once. If the poor traveller can manage to find how to do this and meet the criteria to qualify for a free ticket, they are then faced with a dangerously un-roadworthy bus, a driver that seems to have won his driving license in a lottery and then have demands to part with money for having their luggage put on the bus and even a charge for each piece of luggage carried – the driver once stopped the bus and threatened to throw my wife and I off the bus if we did not pay an extra charge for each piece of luggage we had with us. The immigration process and security will have even the most mild mannered and calm traveler fuming with frustration. Then come the food outlets, poor quality, dirty and not open at the same time as the airport – try getting a cup of coffee at 5am in the morning. WiFi? Unless you have an Indian mobile number, not possible. Taxi? Firstly, for your own safety, you should take a pre-paid taxi arranged inside the terminal building. However, make sure you know exactly where you are going, because it is very unlikely the taxi driver will - last time I arrived at Delhi I was booked into the IBIS in Aerocity, which actually on the airport complex, and I had to provide directions to get the taxi there because the taxi driver had no idea where it was. Perhaps next time Delhi Airport decides to rate themselves, they should first go and travel to a real World-class airport, which would be most other airports in Asia, outside of India.

I'm actually sitting on the dirty floor at Delhi airport right now, wondering why didn't I knOw India is like this? I've visited a lot of developing countries om my life for leisure and volunteering work, but this one is by far the worst airport I've ever visited. Avoid this airport when in transit. I'm a member at the United lounge but I cannot enter until 4 hours prior to the flight. I'll never return to India, I prefer to spend my money where I'm treated with dignity.

Used Delhi Airport for an international flight on AI to Melbourne. Got to the airport and checked in quickly. Immigration queues were short - took 5 minutes. Security was also about 10 minutes. After that the airport was pretty much a shopping mall with food and shops - there is adequate seating and facilities for boarding are quick and efficient. Arrival back from MEL was also quick. No lines for immigration and customs was a walk through. Was out in 30 minutes flat.