Mumbai (BOM) | Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport

[scorpiogenius]

Originally Posted by dreadathecontrols

yep, can verify Dubai, HK , Changi & CKS. Add to that Saigon Int, whatever it s called and i think Colombo. They aint top airports but still.

I've been to Frankfurt(lufthansa base), Zurich and Geneva(Swiss Air bases), Dublin and a few middle east Airports. They all facilitate the use of buses, and it is nothing to be ashamed of. I think p2p4 has explained the business in detail...no questions here sir And yeah, even the top airlines in their own hubs prefer buses against those aerobridges..

Here is what they use in Zurich, the Swiss Air base.

[koresh]

Can't forget my first flight, passing different Air India aircraft's to reach, Gulf Air Tristar, parked next to a British Airways Tristar, all international aircraft's parked next to each other at Mumbai's Santa Cruz airport on 26th January 1980.


Mumbai Airport










photos copyright : Koresh

Mumbai's using stairs would be problem in rains then how about using the stairs in 45 degrees heat.Check below in Muscat

- Muscat









photos copyright :Rklone

Adding to the above list of airports with buses to transfer to aircraft.
- Muscat
- Doha
- Bandar Seri Begwan (Brunei)

Walk to board budget aircrafts

- Melbourne




Photos Copyright: Koresh

Airports to walk to aircraft.

- Changi (Tiger Airways ) (Ranked 2 in world's best airport)
- KL (Air Asia) (Ranked 3 in worlds best airport)
- Hong Kong (Jetstar Asia ) (Ranked 1 in world's best airport)
- Melbourne (Virgin blue), almost all aussie airports.

[koresh]

Those days.........This is part of history now ....

2 years ...

All photos copyright: Koresh












As predicted then, this bridge is gone.



Some of them dont fly to Mumbai anymore




This wont be there in few years








This is no more

























This won't be no more in few years.






This view is no more









This will go..




These colours have changed..










she is gone




He will be gone soon ..






This view has changed. The building will be gone in two years.



Change is good ...

[dreadathecontrols]

Originally Posted by scorpiogenius

I've been to Frankfurt(lufthansa base), Zurich and Geneva(Swiss Air bases), Dublin and a few middle east Airports. They all facilitate the use of buses, and it is nothing to be ashamed of. I think p2p4 has explained the business in detail...no questions here sir And yeah, even the top airlines in their own hubs prefer buses against those aerobridges..

Here is what they use in Zurich, the Swiss Air base.

yeah sure bruv.Only poor old B B got a bee in his bonnet bout dem busses.

[bialterminal]

Originally Posted by sammyk

You need to visit more airports or pay better attention to the ones you do visit.

I guess Bombay Boy is right in a way that in any of the major airports abroad you are more likely to be greeted by an aerobridge vs a bus. But, yes, that does not mean that there are no buses in major international/domestic airports around the world. I think what would be more apt to say is that in Indian airports they are more of a norm than an exception(especially on domestic flights). Last time I landed in LHR, we were ferried by bus to the terminal because our flight (9w from Mumbai) missed it's arrival slot. In major hub airports where large number of passengers transfer between connections, aerobridges are the preferred way otherwise if we run a fleet of buses scurrying around between 100 odd planes and the terminal we have a mess on our hands not to mention the danger involved in the most hazardous operating environment of an airport (the tarmac) & security issues. The airlines may do it for cost cutting purposes...which is fine. But from a turnaround standpoint aerobridges are undoubtedly faster..if that wasn't the case then you would see Southwest Airlines and all the struggling US airlines ferrying passenger via buses at airports having high O&D traffic like LAX,SEA etc. Of course, there is nothing wrong(shameful) about Indian airports or any other airport using buses :-)

[bialterminal]

Originally Posted by vishal

BB, LAX does have a few Remote Terminals which are regularly used and connected to the main terminal by bus. I had a chance, a couple of times (on wide bodied a/cs), to board/arrive through one of these and they used "similar" buses to ferry pax to the main terminal.

Here is a Google view of the arrangement.
BTW, they also use the same buses in lots of airports for intra-terminal transit.

Vishal

You are right about that. This is due to the crunch in the main terminal (Tom Bradley..which is btw one of the most cramped & worst international terminals & disliked by many). Building a bigger and better international terminal and getting rid of the remote terminals has been one of the many things on the to do list and under continous review in very fluid plans at this airport. Ferrying passengers to and from the remote terminals eats into precious turnaround time.

[sammyk]

Originally Posted by bialterminal

I guess Bombay Boy is right in a way that in any of the major airports abroad you are more likely to be greeted by an aerobridge vs a bus. But, yes, that does not mean that there are no buses in major international/domestic airports around the world. I think what would be more apt to say is that in Indian airports they are more of a norm than an exception(especially on domestic flights). Last time I landed in LHR, we were ferried by bus to the terminal because our flight (9w from Mumbai) missed it's arrival slot. In major hub airports where large number of passengers transfer between connections, aerobridges are the preferred way otherwise if we run a fleet of buses scurrying around between 100 odd planes and the terminal we have a mess on our hands not to mention the danger involved in the most hazardous operating environment of an airport (the tarmac) & security issues. The airlines may do it for cost cutting purposes...which is fine. But from a turnaround standpoint aerobridges are undoubtedly faster..if that wasn't the case then you would see Southwest Airlines and all the struggling US airlines ferrying passenger via buses at airports having high O&D traffic like LAX,SEA etc. Of course, there is nothing wrong(shameful) about Indian airports or any other airport using buses :-)

I think it works a little different in the US as gates are leased by the airlines so they may not have a per use charge like they would in a common terminal situation. Buses are still common though. I've used them in Detroit, Houston and Toronto in North America.

[bialterminal]

Originally Posted by sammyk

I think it works a little different in the US as gates are leased by the airlines so they may not have a per use charge like they would in a common terminal situation. Buses are still common though. I've used them in Detroit, Houston and Toronto in North America.

Sammy, like I said, when we say buses are common or buses are used I think we need to consider that as a proportion of the total number of flights handled by the airport. I have used an aerobridge at the old HAL airport on a flight to Mumbai. That does not mean that aerobridges were common at that airport. No airport in the world is free of buses perhaps. In DTW or IAH if you pick 100 passengers in the airport at random you may find less than 10 who used a bus (on the airport tarmac) on that given day.

[bhargavsura]

:deleted:

[vishal]

Originally Posted by bialterminal

Vishal

You are right about that. This is due to the crunch in the main terminal (Tom Bradley..which is btw one of the most cramped & worst international terminals & disliked by many). Building a bigger and better international terminal and getting rid of the remote terminals has been one of the many things on the to do list and under continous review in very fluid plans at this airport. Ferrying passengers to and from the remote terminals eats into precious turnaround time.

That's correct BT, however with the recent downscaling of the Aviation market and financial crunch in the US, the LAX upgrade has been delayed further. Though certain fragments of work is underway at Tom Bradley, they are still way behind schedule in upgrading the features (specially for A380). That was supposed to be done by April08 (As I heard) itself. The passenger Terminal at LAX is definitely below par, but the overall arrangement (Grade Separated Roads, Parking, The Sky Restaurant, Holding Pattern etc.) are things to be learnt by our Indian Airports.

[vidya]

Mumbai: With the existing airports in Mumbai running at full passenger capacity, the Government is looking at building a third airport in Navi Mumbai.

"We are looking at building a new airport...Construction work should start by the end of next year or else Mumbai will suffer as the old airports are saturated," the Civil Aviation Minister, Praful Patel, said.

READ More .... sify.com

[vidya]

I really fell now its enough of airports and malls
Rather than Airports today mumbai need is more trians better roads etc ...
and also more plantation .....

[bhargavsura]

There is Andheri Airport, and now a second airport at Navi Mumbai (as already it has been planned and said "big things" about it for almost three decades now) as mentioned in the article. Which is the third one? Do they call Juhu Runway an airport???

[p2p4]

Originally Posted by bhargavsura

There is Andheri Airport, and now a second airport at Navi Mumbai (as already it has been planned and said "big things" about it for almost three decades now) as mentioned in the article. Which is the third one? Do they call Juhu Runway an airport???

Bhargav my friend, no they don't call Juhu as the 3rd a/p.

However, there has been a lot of talk (but nothing substantial has / may come out of it) about a third a/p to be located near Kalyan. I won't say much but if paraphrasing Vidya is a must, I'd rather the billion dollar investment in building a 3rd a/p rather be invested in building high speed rail-network to serve the 1st (SantaCruz/Sahar) and 2nd (Panvel) airports. Connectivity is and should be the call of the day - and not building airports at the urge of an ugly fart .

[kolkatausa]

Originally Posted by bialterminal

Vishal

You are right about that. This is due to the crunch in the main terminal (Tom Bradley..which is btw one of the most cramped & worst international terminals & disliked by many). Building a bigger and better international terminal and getting rid of the remote terminals has been one of the many things on the to do list and under continous review in very fluid plans at this airport. Ferrying passengers to and from the remote terminals eats into precious turnaround time.

there is no bus service to remote terminals. remote terminals are connected through underground tunnels so that connectors won't obstruct airplane movements. jeez.

[vishal]

Originally Posted by kolkatausa

there is no bus service to remote terminals. remote terminals are connected through underground tunnels so that connectors won't obstruct airplane movements. jeez.

I disagrree, bcoz I have had more than 3 opportunities of being ferried on bus via surface road (No underground connector rather they used the regular Taxiway) and that too when I had travelled internationally (Wide bodied a/c). I have never seen an underground way that comnnects the remote terminals. Can you send us some details or links?

Sorry for being off-topic. Pls. ignore this or lets take this discussion elsewhere if needed.

[Sevenfourfour]

I have been reading some of the posts on the past few pages. Let me clarify some things:

Most major airports around the world still use buses to transport passengers between the terminal and aircraft that are parked on remote/hard stands. CDG a.k.a. the dump uses many buses, especially at the Terminal 2 complex for all halls (A-F) and mega people-movers that have passenger lounges which can be raised vertically to allow for docking to existing jetways, so that passengers can just walk down the jetway normally and board them, after which they are taken to their aircraft. So it's not an anomaly, FRA, CDG, BRU, MAD, and even middle east airports use buses.

As far as that Google Earth image of LAX goes, what you see there west of the south concourse of the Tom Bradley International Terminal is the satellite terminal for American Eagle, which is the commuter airline of American for those of you who don't know. Eagle uses that terminal solely for all its LAX operations. Now, that satellite is connected by an underground tunnel/walkway to American's Terminal 4 AFAIK, which is east of the TBIT south concourse you see there. Still, Eagle and other commuter airlines use buses at several hub airports. Again, nothing wrong, other than the fact that passengers hate buses.

And last but not least, some of you were totally confused about the terminal layout at BOM. Take a look at this photo:

http://www.jetphotos.net/viewphoto.p...6365577&nseq=2

The terminal you see that is closest to you in the lower left corner: that is Terminal 1A for Air India's domestic ops and Kingfisher's ops.

The terminal immediately next to it with the ramp area in front: that is 1B, for Jet, Jetlite, SpiceJet, Indigo and Kingfisher Red.

And the terminal you see on the other side of the crosswind runway (if you look closely, you'll notice an aircraft taking off on it-at the intersection of 14-32 and 09-27; the plane is taking off on 14-32 from the 32 end), that terminal is Terminal 2 in its current layout. As you can see, it is all a single, curved structure. Then why the heck is there a 2A, a 2B and a 2C? Well, the terminal was built in sections, A being built first, then B, then C was built in '99. But they are all joined together anyway, so outside and inside, it is just one continuous building.

Section B was not used from the mid 80's till now, MIAL recently refurbished it. In that period, section A was used by all carriers handling their own ground operations. Section C was built for Air India and all airlines whose ground ops are handled by Air India.

Now that section B has been fully re-opened for passengers and flights, all airlines which were in A have been transferred to B, thus, A is now closed for ops (and being demolished for expansion of T2) and B and C are the only two sections of Terminal 2 that are in operation.

So why build an integrated Terminal 2 for domestic and international ops when 1C will be built? Well, in the current layout, BOM has space issues (no surprise there) and so even though Terminal 2 will be expanded and renovated in roughly the same location, some domestic traffic will still need to be handled separately. IIRC, MIAL wants to make 1C an LCC terminal after the new T2 is fully opened. If that's not the case now, any one of you in the know can correct me on that, but that's what I read.

Anyway, that's the gist of it.

[bialterminal]

Originally Posted by kolkatausa

there is no bus service to remote terminals. remote terminals are connected through underground tunnels so that connectors won't obstruct airplane movements. jeez.

not true. the remote terminals near the sand dunes are served by buses(I have used them). This is due to the inadequately designed (small terminal) Tom Bradley intl terminal.

When the gates at the Tom Bradley International Terminal are full the remote boarding gates permit the efficient transport of passengers on specially designed buses maintaining critical flight schedules and reducing passenger stress.

http://www.jgminc.com/Transportation...mote_Gates.htm

I guess we are off topic, let's take the discussion offline. sorry folks.

[niknak]

Hey guys,

My first post on SC! Here are some images I recently shot. As you can tell, there are some really nice parts and some really bad/uncomfortable parts of MIAL right now. Hope these pics work:

Domestic Arrivals:

Domestic Dep

Terminal 1B



International Arrivals (u/c):


At the moment, this is the first thing most international passengers see as they step out of the airport:


This is the post-upgrade airport departures terminal. (Kind of disappointing compared to other airports):

[p2p4]

Dear Niknak,

Welcome to SSC India (and its subforums). Great work indeed on posting the latest pix of the Domestic and Int'l terminals.

Re. your comment on the refurbished Int'l terminal interiors - just to let u know that there are better things to come and the current internal refurbishments that you a stop-gap till a time when the current consortium will pull it down and rebuild it to form whatever new design that is being conceptualised.

Cheers
p2p4