Delhi Airport

I transited Delhi on 19th October and 11th November en route to and from Kathmandu. I can only say that I was most impressed. The airport is clean and well laid out and the staff are polite and courteous. On my return journey I availed myself of the executive lounge where I was able to enjoy a refreshing shower followed by a satisfying meal.

In short Delhi airport has been a short and a sweet experience for me in comparison to other airports around the world that look more like a shopping complex than an airport. In my experience it took me less than 30 mins to get out of the airport not a single queue until luggage collection point. I like departures security at the airport gates do not allow any unnecessary people to enter the airport except travellers. Staff helpful and friendly. At check-in they provide help with your luggage. Before you go for immigration there are at three points where you are told about immigration forms. A short and a nice collection of duty free with food court.

Transited Varanasi-Delhi-London. On arrival at the domestic terminal there are no signs to the international terminal. You have to follow a worn line on the floor to a wooden desk outside the terminal where an airport employee (not wearing a uniform or an ID) inspects your onward ticket and writes you a chit. You then take the chit and walk to an unmarked bus stop (beside a bridge in the open air) where a shuttle bus takes you to the international terminal. The shuttle bus has its quota of scam artists who try to "help" you with your luggage and then demand a tip. On arrival at the international terminal you have to show your ticket to the Indian army personnel just to get inside (we had to try to get in three times as the soldiers at the first two gates had apparently never seen BA tickets before). You must also go through another five security checks as well as running the gauntlet of Indian immigration. By a long shot the worst airport I've ever had to transit though.

Terminal 3. Facilities are okay and washrooms are constantly cleaned. Food court is okay the food court in domestic departures has more choice than the food court in international departures which is strange. My main negative point is the attitude of the security and immigration staff. They treat you as a 'thing' and don't speak a word to you. Seems like they don't know the basic words like 'hello' 'please' 'thank you'. If I were airport management I would give them some training sessions communication and people skills!

Very impressed with this airport having used it twice in the last 2 weeks. Roads leading up to it clean and free of traffic check in process for both domestic and international flights well demarcated and easy with few lines. Security took about 5 minutes. Each time security staff said thank you and have a safe flight which I thought was nice. Shops were great and the staff helpful. Airport has lots of eateries from all over the worlds with reasonable prices. Found the lounges to be very nice. It is very large with lots of walking but it is clean and there is a boarding gate for every flight- certainly better than any US airport and most European ones.

Have been in and out of DEL several times in recent past. Queues at immigration always lesser than airports outside India. Washrooms always clean although are used by security staff and other staff as well. Eating choices good and affordable considering that airports in general are expensive world over. Ample space and no sensation/risk of bumping into people unlike several major airports in the world.

It did not matter to me how big or new Indira Ghandi Airport was to me I was not impressed at all. The airport was a major disappointment to anyone using it. The attitude of the workers at the airport is horrible. Check-in workers will just throw your bags on to the belt in front of you. Immigration lines are ridiculous. Locals and foreigners are queuing up together. Locals were mostly cutting through the line and making the line so confusing and packed up that it did not look like a line. No one was there to control the line and immigration workers refused to do anything about it. There was just no system to it. I was glad to leave the airport.

The Transfer area is horrible with no food stalls and no money exchanges. There must be around 50 chairs and when there is more than 1 flight people wait there for 5-6 hrs standing to get to the transit area. There is no customer service. I travelled with my mother from USA and after taking a 17 hrs flight we had a horrible experience. The employees treat you as though they are doing a favour by giving you the ongoing boarding pass or answering any questions.

I frequently use Delhi airport and its terminals 1D and 3 are quite modern compared to old 1A 1B and 2. Security check procedure is still old-school but its much better managed now than before. Terminal 3 is quite long and maybe it could have been better designed to reduce walking time to gates. Further it feels more closed than open and maybe they could improve on natural lighting. Terminal 1D is quite fantastic given everything is fast-track but it lacks facilities as compared to even Terminal 3. In both the terminals they need to improve on maintenance.

I expected a lot from this airport. It looks more of an airport built within a shopping mall. The immigration- and-security check area combined is half of the entire commercial and food area. It took me 65 minutes to get through immigration and security check due to the long queues. I think IGI and GMR lost out on prioritizing the facilities. People don't visit airports for fun and shopping they travel through them and the top priority should be passenger convenience which is in no way top notch.