Delhi Airport

I used the new terminal a week or so after the opening. The landside / check-in area is large with room to move but if you are early for check-in then plan to sit on your suitcase. Anywhere remotely looking like seating was filled to capacity with locals sleeping. Once check-in opened then the lines quickly formed although in fairness I have been in slower lines. Landside shops? forget it! Lines of people waiting at passport control has transferred from the old terminal to the new one same people of course! It takes these guys ages to do anything. At one point the line next to mine (and they had been waiting a long time) were told to go to another line because the officer was due his tea break! Security checks are far too slow but faster than the old terminal maybe they are nervous but I think needing to remove a shaver electric lead from hand baggage and sending it through the scanner again is a bit too much! Airside immediate impression is 'wow India have entered the airport excellence challenge' after a while you remember where you are and can easily see where you are. Shops are there but overpriced (cheaper to buy your last minute present in Delhi) no available seats near anything like a coffee shop and the area around the main one was dirty. Further in towards departure gates the areas are very large pleasant and fully carpeted. I wonder if that was good idea since it looked dirty already and with kids spilling their coke (seen many times in the 2 hour airside wait) it wont last long! To give this airport any glowing report now would distract from what it will be like - if I said the waiting areas at the gates and the open areas at landside are the best things at the airport then its a good guide.

Just spent 7 hours waiting in transit lounge at Delhi Airport whilst travelling London to Delhi with Air India and Delhi to KL with Air Asia in circumstances where my wife and I could have and should have spent no longer than 5 minutes in the area. The rule operating in practice is that you cannot transit until the airline which delivered you to Delhi signs you over and you are accepted by the airline taking you out again. This is so even where you are appropriately ticketed and have an internet boarding pass for the ongoing flight. So if there is no one available at your ongoing airline or no one processes your request from the arriving airline you simply sit and wait and are effectively left in limbo. The only way to get through is to constantly harass the staff to keep checking on where matters are for your particular case. You are invariably told each time you approach the desk by the person on the counter that they do not work for the particular airline that you are flying out on and the matter is not their responsibility. Air India appears to be the only company represented in the transit area. Many people are forced to spend long periods (in some cases more than 24 hours) confined in the transit room with no shops or other facilities. This is completely unnecessary where passengers hold ongoing ticketing. No one appears to be in charge or available to deal with passenger transit. You are just locked in a room and left to fend for yourself. I saw many very frustrated and distressed people unable to have their individual transit situations appropriately dealt with. The many individual staff members at the transit desk whilst personally pleasant were incompetent to handle the situation. The whole shambolic situation is a debacle. I was told by another passenger that on one occasion the security staff would not even allow travellers out of the room to go to the toilet for a period in excess of 3 hours.

The new terminal 3 at Delhi Airport is well laid out clean and seems to be up to international standards. Signage is very clear. Immigration and emigration process times are fast. Luggage delivered pretty fast. Toilets clean. Shopping is satisfactory though merchandise variety especially quality Indian products within a reasonable price range could be better. The retail space available in the international section is definitely not some 20K m2 as advertised by DIAL. Not even close. Landside is not yet fully ready.

International terminal 3 is finally a goer. It is an improvement on the previous effort T2 (that would not be difficult). It is new - Indian new (meaning not entirely finished). Where it is finished on close inspection it actually isn't. Departure is an improvement (but not much) as is Arrival (still have the really self important immigration officers but that is true everywhere). Everything is quicker slightly quicker which is better than it was. Luggage still takes a long time to arrive which is mysterious. Departure lounge is amazingly expensive - $6 for a small beer kind of expensive. They have a sports bar which as of now is not actually licensed but they do have a smoking room as a nod to Asian tolerance. Do not look too closely at the fine workmanship as that will only disappoint and whatever you do do not chuckle as chuckling tends to offend too. In all a very Indian effort but still better than the previous effort that was T2. The domestic terminal is actually an efficient (and dare I say it) pleasant experience and quite a surprise. Naturally that will be closing and relocating to terminal T2 in the very near future.

Used the new T3 for an international departure shortly after it opened in July end. While the outlook of the terminal is greatly improved I still had to wait in a long queue outside to get in. They have at least 8 entrances to the terminal but only 2 were open to passengers after checking of tickets and passport. Why not open a few more to ease the flow of passengers getting in!! Once inside another long queue at the check-in counter of Jet Airways who seemed to be checking in all domestic and international passengers at same counters. Security check didn't take very long and I was just in time at the gate to board my flight. The washroom near the gate had no lights. Apparently was still in a state of construction. However being a new terminal it was clean. Advice: Give yourself enough time before departure to have a less stressful departure experience.

I used this airport four times in the past quarter of a year. The international terminal is dirty badly managed simply unsuitable to bear the amount of passengers. Adversely the domestic terminal is modern full of light clean and well organized.

Delhi's new Terminal 3 has finally opened. Lots of aerobridges travelators well laid out baggage hall clean toilets - a truly superior experience compared to the old terminal. I wish they could improve the calibre of people at Immigration and it isn't fully ready (lounges and outlets are still being put into place) but it is an international quality terminal. I noticed that there is now a proper transit area for connecting passengers.

Quite similar experience as any one - food stalls are empty display vague westernized food. Nowhere to go. But still the unmissable Indian experience.

Delhi Airport (International Terminal) was not as good as I thought it would be. I had to spend seven hours in transit area of the international terminal while going/coming back to/from Kathmandu. The international transit wait area has just hard bottom seats restrooms two little light snack stalls and two TVs - no duty free or lounges restaurants/cafes cyber stations sofas etc - all of these are available beyond security on the way to boarding flights which happens only 3 hours prior to the departure time. The transit wait area is a small area and authorities/airline land crew not very helpful - saw some airline crew make fun of a non-English speaking passenger which looks like is a frequent case here sadly. They just opened up a new terminal last week may be the conditions there has improved!

If you are a transit passenger who is going to have to wait for extended periods of time in the transit lounge do not do it. We flew to Bangkok stopping 15 hours in transit. We knew it would be a long wait but did not understand the ordeal we would face. The facilities are absolutely appalling and the staff do not want to know that you are freezing because the air- con is sub zero temperature all night. You are not allowed to use the clipper lounge unless you are business class. No cash machine no currency exchange. Filthy toilets. No information desk unless you have already passed through security check! After 15 hours of begging for help from airport staff customs office and airline staff we were near breaking point. Staff laughing at us. There are other issues for western women which I cannot speak of during this review but you are going to find it most uncomfortable. If you can avoid New Delhi in transit ove night please do. I do not wish our experience on anyone.