'Multiple Reschedules, Lousiest Staff': 3 Days of Chaos at Mumbai's T1 Airport Angers Flyers

Chaos was reportedly witnessed at Mumbai’s domestic airport on Thursday, with people complaining of “zero crowd management” and packed premises. Passengers have been facing chaotic situations for the last two-three days.

Several took to X (formerly Twitter) to express their anger. “Complete #chaos at T1 #Mumbai. Overcrowded, poor #infrastructure & zero #crowd mgmt. #air #travel thru. Mumbai is absolute #hell,” a user, who goes by the name ‘FoxBat’, wrote.

The user further said that SpiceJet had a “huge line for checking” at T1 due to “non-availability of dedicated counter”. ‘FoxBat’ updated that passengers on “SG 8702 are likely to miss flight”.

One Suramya Kaushik wrote, “Total chaos at T1, Mumbai Airport! Booked a 7:20 SpiceJet flight from Mumbai to Delhi – got delayed to 9:05am – now further delayed to 10am. Ridiculous! @flyspicejet staff has no concrete reasoning for the delay. Neither refund nor a proper solution. #spicejet #BomtoDel (sic).”

Some users reported a similar incident on Tuesday. ‘X’ user ‘Maj Gen Shail Jha (Veteran)’ wrote, “Waiting for takeoff from Mumbai airport T1. Whatever be the data, I think it has the lousiest ground and air traffic management. Somebody should do the survey of how much fuel is wasted at this terminal.”

On Monday, a student, Rhythm Gupta, posted on ‘X’: “@IndiGo6E pathetic flight experience .. sitting @t1 mumbai for flight BOM to ATQ and they are keep rescheduling.. airport should manage well then high footfall. #6E5256 They should comfort us or stop rescheduling. Won’t choose them now (sic).”

In June, people had taken to social media to complain against unscrupulous autorickshaw drivers who they said demanded Rs 350 for a journey from T1 at the airport in Vile Parle (E) to Andheri or Juhu.

A report in Times of India had stated that the modus operandi was to catch people new to the city and inform them that “autos run on prepaid in Mumbai”.

“They are asked to pay a prepaid fare of Rs 350 to Rs 400 before commencement of journey from the airport and are falsely informed that the auto operate on pre-paid system,” Dhawal Shah of Lokhandwala Oshiwara Citizens’ Association, which had also come across a few complaints from members over the past few days, was quoted as saying.