Mumbai Airport

The transfer system is a disgrace. We arrived at Mumbai at 11pm but it was 12.50pm by the time we got through the security. The system was shambolic with hundreds of passengers being shunted through six security checks (2 for women and four for men). Nobody was supervising the queue several were worried about missing connecting flights. We had been screened at Chennai and had no opportunity to leave the airport so it is entirely beyond me as to why it needs to be done again. Not only that but why body-scan people who walked through the electronic checks without any problem. I cannot recommend the airport and have no wish to visit it again.

It was my misfortune to transit through Mumbai . Everyone was treated as if they were an arriving passenger and had to go through personal and hand luggage screening. I am an easy- going person but was shocked and angered at the way I was treated and dealt with by most of the staff. Prospective transit passengers should be aware that women and men are segregated and dealt with separately. Leaving from gate 3 for Heathrow was a most disconcerting experience. The waiting room (for that is all it is) caters for gates 1A 1B 1C 2A 2B and 3. Loudspeaker announcements are made at the same time as airline representatives shouting for missing passengers - if you can hear anything at all you're lucky. I shall do everything in my power to avoid travelling through Mumbai in the future and shall discourage others from doing the same.

The airport has transformed in recent years - it was quite clean less noisy and chaotic and a decent airport experience. Quite a change from few years back. The only gripe was the traffic/chaos outside the airport. Due to security reasons the traffic police just allows one row of vehicles to the airport departures due to which there was a huge traffic jam and this combined with the sea of people saying good byes to their loved ones means a huge chaos. But once inside the airport it all changes. I did not have to queue anywhere (checkin immigration security) for more than 10 minutes. I think within 20-30 minutes from check in I was at the Lufthansa lounge. I did a brief walk through the airport before boarding and saw nice restaurants cafes and duty free. Overall I was quite satisfied with the experience.

Duty free selection on alcohol was good not so much on cigarettes. The currency exchange in the international departure area is quite funny the woman advised me that the place did not have a good rate and that I should exchange when getting back to HK. The whole security process is highly complicated one has to get a stamp at each checkpoint which leaves you with about 4 stamps in the end. Overall not bad for India's economic situation.

Was at Chhatrapati Shivaji recently and shocked by the state of the place. I understand they are building a new terminal so this can't come quick enough. I was in transit with Jet Airways and found the experience painful. The extensive queues are extremely long and the security checking inconsistent. We found that duty free was being confiscated at random. Some people getting through with liquids galore. In some cases they were even confiscating dry products. What then shocked me is the fact that the airport operates like some seedy back alley part of Mumbai. Being a smoker I asked official staff where to smoke and was first pointed to the toilet. Confused I then asked another member of staff and was further escorted to a janitor's closet where the janitor was waiting and said: "five dollar you smoke here" - in a storage cupboard! Not convinced I then asked somebody else and was pointed to the restaurant likewise where they are charging passengers to smoke illicitly in a storage room. I refused of course. BOM is a non smoking airport no matter what they tell you or where they lead you. At one point paying for duty free took 15 minutes no reason just lots of paper work fiddling around with my documents and so on. It was all very suspicious. Finally we ordered some KFC at the counter having contracted Delhi Belly on the outward journey - thinking that deep fried chicken would be the most sanitary option. While we waited for food an 8 inch long rat jumped onto the counter chased by a member of staff - ran along the counter over the cash desk and up a wall. This was much to the amusement of the staff who gladly went on serving food without even washing their hands. In summary BOM is not a good option for transiting which is a shame since India now boasts a couple of good airlines offering attractive transit deals. I will be avoiding them personally.

As a frequent user of the Mumbai Airport I agree with the general comments here. As with things in India it just needs someone with a brain to sort it out. If you are in the BA club lounge stay there. The outside bars/food are overpriced. If you are a smoker go to the Celebrations bar but they will make you buy a drink first (beer £7!). How is this bar allowed given that it is a no smoking airport! Never let your credit card out of your sight as a few passengers were complaining about misuse on their prior visits. The duty-free shops are bland with US$ prices: no Indian whisky. Presumably Indian whisky is considered too downmarket! As for the repeated robotic security checks just grin and bear it: you need those stamps on your luggage tag ! As many flights leave 0230ish I found the frequent roundup by airline staff useful especially as I was nodding off. Lastly can anyone clarify if this 'no re-entry within 2 months' tourist visa rule is actually enforced?

Transit through Mumbai is a nightmare flying from Heathrow to Bangkok via Mumbai with 2 young children. We queued nearly 3 hours to clear security control only to find that they had 3 x- ray machines for all transit passengers. Staff rude and unhelpful to a point that they were joking at the discomfort of the passengers. I will never fly through Mumbai again and would advise others to avoid as well.

I have visited Mumbai once as a visitor to India and twice in transit the transits being in the past week. Another planned visit as a tourist to India has now been cancelled for ever. My experience last weekend and 4 weeks prior to that have made me make that decision. After being well and truly frisked at Bangkok I arrived at Mumbai expecting security to be almost nil for transit passengers. How wrong. Not only was it a very slow and "thorough(?)" process it was carried out by the most rude and ignorant people I have had the misfortune to meet at any airport in the world. Not only that but about 5 other checks on boarding pass and passport before being allowed on the plane again by rude and uncaring people. Complete and utter overkill and seemingly designed to deter people from air travel - has certainly deterred me from ever travelling to or via Mumbai ever again.

Worst airport experience ever! Even though we were just transit passengers who in other airports would have been pre-cleared hundreds of us waited for over two hours to go through security again. Hall was hot and crowded and arguments broke out periodically among passengers and staff. The security staff were rumored to be executing an intentional work slow-down. Indeed they seemed to have smirks on their faces and worked excruciatingly slowly even though old ladies in wheelchairs were clearly suffering from the wait. Everybody was crowding trying to maintain their place. People were videoing the commotion with their cellphones and cameras. Those who complained were simply smiled at. Their attitudes and the overall commotion made me fear corruption and theft of my laptop or iPhone and I teamed with another passenger to watch each others' stuff through security. I never thought I would feel that way in the secure zone of an airport. Flight was delayed two hours to wait for the transit passengers to go through security. We left on a shuttle bus into the same zone we had just come from. Worth paying extra to avoid this airport.

I rate my departure from Mumbai airport a few days ago as the worst I have experienced for departure queues and security queues. As I was checking in with SQ business class I thought that arriving 2 hrs before the flight would be more than sufficient time - but I needed nearly all of that time to get through the queues for departure. Long queues at the entry doors to the terminal for documentation checks with no concept of "queuing" for many people. An even longer queue for the security/carry on baggage x-ray. Disorganised and not able to cope with the volume of departing passengers. Once in the transit/departure area this seemed to have been recently upgraded with reasonable shops and facilities. The only Star Alliance lounge was Lufthansa and again this was too small to cope with the number of passengers. Definitely allow for additional time to navigate the traffic to the airport and for the very slow and tedious departure processing to be able to make your flight on time.