Delhi Airport

Not Verified | Difficult to find way around airport. Staff are unhelpful and give wrong information. However, the staff in the duty free shopping area are too helpful. Every time you look at anything, they pounce in an intimidating hard sell fashion. Apart from Russian airports have never encounted such officious rude staff. The security area is the worst. On two occasions I encountered the same female staff member. Each time she frisked me, all she says is turn. No smiles, no thankyous. Really intimidating place. Also why is it necessary to obtain tourist visa, when you have connecting flights, staying at airport hotel and not leaving airport. Avoid this airport.

✅ Trip Verified | Arrived and spent far too much time in the 'Business Class' line for entry / transit - should have gone all the way to the end where they had 10 times as many people dealing with e-vias. Technology for fingerprint scanning rarely works, taking multiple tries to just scan one finger / thumb. My partner is Chinese and it took him much longer to pass through than me. Exited and had luggage to check in for our next flight. Was sent all the way to the end of the arrivals area to follow the sign for departures and lined up. Spent time waiting in the line with a luggage filled trolley each only to get to the front of the queue to be told to ‘go that way’. Nothing more. Rude and unacceptable behaviour of the staff. Was approached by another member of staff while wandering ‘that way’ to be told that we needed to go to transit. We explained what happened and asked why. Finally told that it was because there were no lifts at that end of the airport. Lined up at the midpoint area of arrivals to wait for one member of staff to stop looking at his phone and finally look at our passports. He said nothing, just handed them back. No directions, no instruction, just waved us through. Signs on the lift state 'no trolleys beyond this point'. So, we lifted all our luggage off our trolleys and then were told that it was OK to take a trolley into the lift. So, loaded up a trolleys again. Checked in, went to the ‘business class’ entry point for passport control which took forever. Went to the business class luggage scan – which took forever and then was stopped and searched because I had a fridge magnet in my hand luggage. A fridge magnet? Really? Technology needs to be updated. Passed my luggage through the machine again and just left it there on the rollers, waiting for all of the other passengers to pass through and be searched before I had to abruptly ask for my luggage to be returned to me. Staff are rude and ignore you, if even speak with you at all. Time wasted. Thank goodness our flight was much later in the evening. There were at least half a dozen people who clearly had similar delays and were late for their flight. At least they were polite and explained as they requested to pass that they were late for their flight and needed to jump the queue – no problem with that at all. Arrived at the lounge almost 2 hours after landing from our previous flight and the technology to scan your passport to get a coupon for wifi was slow and lethargic – rather like the staff. As the specific nature of the ID that you have to put into the system to log on to this wifi, this review and my activities are being monitored and logged as we speak. Let’s hope that someone takes note and improves things here. Zero stars Delhi Airport.

✅ Trip Verified |   I gave a score of 1 out of 10 in my prior review. But I must say the airport came through and assisted me particularly the terminal manager Karan and his assistant Manish. I am thankful. These things are always about customer service. So thank you.

✅ Trip Verified | I wish I could give this airport a zero. Staff unhelpful. I have checked in online and have a boarding pass however I am not allowed through the transit area without a paper boarding pass. Apparently you can only go to into the terminal 4 hrs before your flight. However, on the airport website it indicates that if you have a ticket and are transitting you can go and be in the terminal,/lounge/hotel. I have a hotel booking but I'm sitting and waiting for a paper ticket. What an advanced airport we have, it makes no sense that they won best airport. I could rather have transmitted through another airport in other country of all the airports in this country works this way. I suggest they take the lies of the website and put the actual correct process there.

✅ Trip Verified |   I was there twice in last 10 days for transits. once from Vistara to Air France, and the other air India to air India. The airport looks crowded with airline and support staffs as compared to other international airports I have been to. They try to support and help the transfers which sometimes feel like hinderance and barrier. the facilities for the transit passengers are good, toilets, WiFi and food courts all are good. the airport is very clean and properly maintained. signs to guide the travellers are sufficient. we can pass through long layovers easily. the airport though is very vibrant makes one feel energetic . I like this very much. my vegetarian food choices are ample, prices are somewhat reasonable. security staffs needs to improve on behaviour issues. everything I experienced was fine .

Not Verified |   Delhi Airport (IGI, Terminal 3) adds so much chaos to the travel. Starts with a entry gate where there is a separate que to register the boarding pass after which passengers have to walk back and go through a different gate for entry. This is something which could happen in sequence and there was no need for additional checkpoint and confusion. The new self checkin baggage drop counters needed to have some back up plans before full time launch. Most counters have glitches and some suddenly become dysfunctional. And when there is a such a glitch, the que is shifted to next counter without any system. This adds significant inconvenience, delay and frustration! Some layouts such as having domestic check-in counters opposite International Security check counters and vice versa is adding so much to the inconvenience. The system of smart tray systems at security check could be so much better. The purpose is so that people can easily offload the bags for security check and push it in easily. But the purpose itself is defeated. People are made to carry the smart trays, load their bags and stay back in ques as it used to happen with usual trays adding to unwarranted chaos and a mess at the security check counters.

✅ Trip Verified | My husband and I were travelling with our 6 month old baby. It really was one of the worst airport experiences we have ever had. When leaving, we arrived to terminal 3 over 3h before. There are no signs at all for which door to use for international departures so you have no choice but to ask people for help, who will only help you if you pay them. We eventually got into a queue and the security guard was demanding to see airline tickets. We had everything on our phones - but no access to WiFi to be able to display the tickets. We could not download the boarding passes as BA advised they needed to be collected from the desk. This resulted in an unnecessary stand off with my husband desperately trying to explain. If passengers are required to have e tickets then airlines should be advising passengers to have this printed or risk not being allowed into the airport. This would be less of an issue if we could access WiFi, but we could not get a code without physically being in the airport to visit a kiosk. We thrn entered the security queue. As I mentioned we were travelling with a 6 month old baby and we therefore carried a bag filled with baby items including milk, baby food, nappies, wipes etc. your staff stopped the bag - stating we had batteries in it. My husband emptied the bag and showed there were no batteries or anything illegal for that matter. The staff still refused to allow the bag through even though they could see it contained essential items for our baby. They then very vigorously searched my husband. My husband then became quite upset and anxious given how vital it was we had this whilst travelling. My husband repeatedly asked what was the reason for withholding the bag, not once did they give an answer that made any sense, they just seemed to be exercising their authority. Eventually again after a long stand off we got the bag. It was completely unnecessary, upsetting and stressful. It is shameful that they treat people in this way. The job of security is to screen and look for dangerous items, and protect the public - not to bully people.

✅ Trip Verified | I was flying to London, Gatwick and I had a transit in Delhi Airport. As soon as I was taken through security check there were two guards sitting at the entrance to check boarding pass, As I was escorted by one of the Airport staff he told me to show my boarding pass to them instead they told me to go through and started laughing as if they were making fun of me, I ignored it and moved on to where they would check my hand luggage. As my bag went through scanner, One of the guard told me to open my bag he told me to take out everything so I took everything out as instructed which point he happened to see my cigarette and e-liquid, He told me that is not allowed and I asked why, Another guard approaches he says the same thing, I asked him the reason why is it not allowed, I asked them if e-cigarettes and e-liquids are classed as illegal drugs. Instead of answering my question they start talking amongst themselves in their language, I felt like they were talking about me which made me feel really uneasy. Also to check one person they use two to three person, I felt like I was in a police station and not in International transit, I felt very intimidated. It looked they have done this to other international passengers as well. If that is how their security staff works then they might as well hire a thug. They didn't made me feel secure at all. I will say this that would be the last time I will travel from that Airport. I will discourage all my friends and families who wish to travel through this Airport in the future.

Not Verified | Rudeness is not the word, it’s a level up than that. Staff are clueless about organising the crowd. No management or leadership across all levels. Don’t even have a courtesy to return a good morning.

✅ Trip Verified | Delhi Airport is run by incompetence and is a complete shambles. On a positive side - the airport is very clean, including the toilets. On our arrival into the airport, it was very early in the morning and there were very few people around, but it took us nearly 40 minutes to get through passport control as the people were finger print scanning everyone and insisting on all paperwork being filled out the way they wanted. Once they had this paperwork, they were very slow at processing it. The whole arrivals area looks pretty grim, particularly past customs. After you collect your bags, you have to walk through a long shopping mall before you finally get to customs and out to the door. We were expecting people and touts everywhere, but surprisingly this wasn't the case and it was a calm and peaceful entry into India. Our departure was the opposite.... as I said before - complete shambles. Delhi Airport's International terminal had been completely upgraded / rebuilt and looks very nice and clean - unfortunately the government must have run out of money after paying for the President's new jet and could not afford to put in a decent security screening system - I'll get back to this later. Before getting into the airport, you must have a boarding pass, which we didn't have so we had to argue with the soldier on duty and he finally let us in after we showed him our passports and a flight ticket. There are several of these check points and it is not clear which check point you have to go to unless you are in an Indian Airline. Inside the terminal looks nice, fresh and clean and I guess they want to keep the touts, pickpockets etc out of the airport. After check in was passport control - the guy on the desk did his job, but was surly and he stamped our passport and boarding pass - at this stage I thought things were going too smoothly until security. Security at Delhi Airport requires you to wait in line while removing all electronics and plugs out of your bag and holding on to them. When you get to the front of the queue you have to get your boarding pass out again and passport and show it to a security staff member, you have to find several small trays to put all of your things in so nothing is on top of each other, then wait in another line (we had to hold 6 of these trays). When we got to the front of this queue, we had to get our boarding passes and passports out again and show them to another security staff member. Next, males and females are separated, walk through the metal detector to another staff member and show your boarding passes and passports again. Eventually our bags and belongings turned up from the scanner about 5 minutes later, but there was no table or space we could comfortably put our things back into our bags. As I mentioned before the Indian Government has made a nice looking modern airport (departures side) with clean facilities, plenty of space and adequate eating places, but it has not invested in a decent and efficient Security screening system, which is why it is complete shambles. My only other complaint is why all the areas where you can sit and watch the planes coming and going are all locked off as departure gates and people like me can't find somewhere to sit and watch the aircraft coming and going. Overall, I would have a good impression of Delhi Airport if they fixed the security screening, but we won't be flying into Delhi again.