Mumbai Airport

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.

The most annoying airport I have yet to find to transit through and catch a connecting flight. Normally two hours would easily be enough time to disembark one plane and be at the gate ready to board the next. Not at Mumbai. First you are made to wait with other passengers who have just disembarked your plane in a loud crowded immigration hall. You are then led upstairs and along corridors to transit security. Yes you have to go through security again. So they need to check your ticket. Then men and women are divided into separate queues from where couples can't even see each other. In these queues people are stressed and often looking to push ahead of you. As well as this if you are in the male queue you cannot see the end of the queue as it goes around a corner so you have no idea how long it will all take. The security queue took well over an hour to pass through on both times I had the misfortune to enter it and both times I only just made my connecting flight. Furthermore the security officials make it their job to frisk everyone whether you set the scanner off or not and go through a tedious process of stamping a label you have to attach to your bag and your boarding pass to show you have been through security. After showing your boarding pass and passport to the airline officials at the gate you can then be stopped by further security personnel on the way to the plane who wish to check your documents again just to see if you have been through security or not. So tedious. I will never transit through Mumbai ever again.

Has to be the worst airport I have visited regards organization of passengers through security cleanliness and general lack of expertise. Organization of passengers through security or the lack of any order is quite scary intimidating and dangerous as crowds push and people are shouting to make progress.

I flew out of Mumbai to Singapore on Dec 18th. Pleasantly surprised to find a huge improvement. Entrance to the airport and check-in were a breeze at 9 pm (for my 2330 departure). Immigration took 5 minutes and security about 10. The lounges are all new and the Oberoi Clipper lounge was pretty comfortable with a nice recliner chair w-fi and decent service. There were drinks and a light meal on offer though the food could be improved a bit. Swanky new duty free shops half a dozen new restaurants and bars two massage spas and a general spruce up have changed the place beyond recognition. I suspect that things get busier later on when most flights depart but then I make a conscious effort to fly out of Indian airports during non peak hours. There are an increasing number of flight options that avoid the midnight - 4 am peak slot and I strongly recommend them.

Arrival into Mumbai was fine went through to baggage claim fairly easy. However leaving is another matter. Very long lines at immigration took over 90 minutes from the beginning of the queue to the chap on the desk. Security after that is a nightmare taking forever to go through. After that there is not much in the way of duty free shops and the ones that are there are very expensive. There are a few bars which are not overly expensive but they give good service and are a happy retreat from the crowds. Overall not the worst airport in the world but very crowded to immigration so this needs to be factored into your flight departure.

Arrived to a packed airport entrance with several thousand Haj pilgrims added to the usual rush. Airport staff handled situation well and it felt biased but non Haj travellers were ushered through check in and security by attentive airline staff. Big complaint is the rip- off prices at kiosks. Got charged over £4 for a bar of chocolate and when asked for money back was refused refund.

It took me at least half an hour to get from the start of the terminal building to my entrance. This was due to the unorganised volume of people and traffic allowed to congregate outside. Armed guards only allow passengers inside the terminal building. Once you have made it through all the people to get inside you have to get your luggage scanned and security taped before check-in will take it. They tell most people this after queuing at the check-in desk (not useful). The international departure concourse for the most part looked like it is falling apart despite renovation (though the internal departure concourse in another terminal was newly designed and looked good). Immigration is painfully slow and immigration staff seem to think everyone is a suspect. Security is a joke as their methods are inconsistent. One guy will pat one passenger while the guy next to him doesn't bother with his passenger. Queues are the longest I've ever seen at security and this was at 11.00 at night. They changed the gate of my flight without any announcement only finding it by chance. Unfortunately it is the main port of entry to southern India so be aware of the differences compared to western airports and go with the flow as it is easy to get frustrated here with everything.