Mumbai (BOM) | Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport

[Cov Boy]

Nice photos!

Welcome niknak and thanks for the upload.

I am impressed with the interiors and colours so cant wait to see more pics of the airport. I think MAIL are doing a great job considering the problems and constraints they have.

[Bombay Boy]

Originally Posted by p2p4

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.

they have already pulled down part of terminal 2 for the new terminal

[skdubai]

The domestic terminal looks Awesome......

[deeguy07]

Originally Posted by 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.

Even one of Asia's Busiest, Dubai uses buses to transport them to the terminal.. Their style is.. a recorded announcement .. "This bus will stop at 2 places. First is Arrivals where people who have to get into Dubai has to get down. Second is Transit.. People taking connecting flights have to get down.." Everytime I laugh at this...

[bhargavsura]

Those were some great pictures Niknak...

Awesome..

Welcome to SSC

[Cov Boy]

Even one of Asia's Busiest, Dubai uses buses to transport them to the terminal.. Their style is.. a recorded announcement .. "This bus will stop at 2 places. First is Arrivals where people who have to get into Dubai has to get down. Second is Transit.. People taking connecting flights have to get down.." Everytime I laugh at this...

Yup your right! I have also experienced this which I thought was kind of strange but on reflection it all worked out well

[ir desi]

Niknak, wow! The pictures of 1B are absolutely stunning. I have never been there and previously only seen pictures of the check-in hall. But man, I want that airport!

[Mahratta]

Welcome to SSC, niknak, and great first post!

I'm impressed with the work done on the airport, they worked well on terminal 1B despite the restrictions of the original design (low ceilings etc.)

I'm looking forward to seeing the improvements for myself when I visit in December, hopefully many U/C parts will be complete.

[barrykul]

Niknak, thanks for sharing those outstanding pictures of MIAL. I am impressed with the quality of the make shift interiors and always smile when I see Indian Brand Cafe Day (no starbucks please). Great to see the upgrades, I will take this version of MIAL any day compared to the crappy airports elsewhere.

How was the service efficiency of MIAL, from the time you landed to getting out, and also the reverse in check in and boarding.

[barrykul]

duplicate

[KB335ci2]

Nice post, NikNak. Things didn't look great (although fully-functional) outside terminal 2 when I last visited. It's work in progress...STEP ON IT, MIAL!

[JSandhu296]

IT LOOKS AWESOME....SO EXCITING

[KB335ci2]

CSIA Terminal 1A
Please excuse the photo quality. My Dad used his cell-phone camera (atleast he did, considering that I had to beg him to take some pics to begin with)

Inside



Kingfisher Airlines Check-in counters






Construction everywhere






A Kingfisher Airlines A320

[Bombay Boy]

cool. 1a seems to have changed quite a bit. havent used it in over a year

[mastboy_86]

Great post....you are the first one to put up latest pics of 1A....superb pics

[KB335ci2]

Thanks

[Mahratta]

Thanks for the snaps KB335

Now, if they can only get rid of the slums around the airport, it won't smell like a sewer when you get out of the plane

[KB335ci2]

No prob, Mahratta. I'll admit that the airport used to smell awful (it was more phenyl than anything else IMO, which I'm alergic to, BTW), but things have changed. On my recent trip, I dreaded that wafting phenyl odour, but I was pleasantly surprised....NOTHING...NADA....ZILCH.
I assure you that you'll smell nothing when you visit this December.
I Promise

[skdubai]

I never had much problems with most AAI managed airport, except for that god awe full smell as soon as you got into the airport. So if that has gone away, thats a humongous step in the right direction

[Mahratta]

Originally Posted by KB335ci2

No prob, Mahratta. I'll admit that the airport used to smell awful (it was more phenyl than anything else IMO, which I'm alergic to, BTW), but things have changed. On my recent trip, I dreaded that wafting phenyl odour, but I was pleasantly surprised....NOTHING...NADA....ZILCH.
I assure you that you'll smell nothing when you visit this December.
I Promise

That's almost as good as the pictures themselves!
Although...that smell was kind of like a "Welcome to India" sign that involved all senses, not just sight