Mumbai Airport has been witnessing a spike in traffic over the weekend, and hence, there has been massive congestion at the Security corridor, at least for domestic flights. Mumbai Airport has been witnessing over 40 minutes from the check-in counters to clearing security in many cases, with queues stretching up for miles. It almost looked like a mini LHR from the pictures.

Good times are back? Mumbai airport this morning. Travel is the new wave 🙂 pic.twitter.com/FC1qRX95zg

— K Sudarshan (@SudarshanEMA) October 8, 2021

Not sure what the heck is going on at the domestic departure in Mumbai Airport. Hardly any lines outside the terminal but after check in the first line starts for just scanning of the bording pass. pic.twitter.com/rM55PwSg8X

— Vir (@virnakai) October 9, 2021

This has been the situation through Friday and Saturday. The Mumbai International Airport Limited also issued a press statement in this regard, apologising for the situation.

 With the onset of the festive season, there has been a surge in passenger traffic and a sudden spike witnessed at CSMIA this morning. Similar experiences have also been witnessed in other city airports of the country. Further owing to recent intelligence reports received by stakeholders and threat at another airport in the state, security measures have been further enhanced at CSMIA. The security and safety of our passengers are of utmost priority and our endeavor is to continue to not compromise on these critical aspects. CSMIA airport has deployed additional staff for a quicker turnaround at all the security checkpoints for a smoother passenger experience. Additionally, CSMIA is following all the COVID protocols laid down by the Government to ensure a smoother transition. CSMIA regrets the inconvenience caused to any passengers and is offering them all the support required. In addition, in keeping with the growing increase of passenger traffic and to ensure a seamless service experience, CSMIA has planned to open Terminal 1 operations from 20th October, 2021.

Now, if you see these queues, you’d see that Covid just sounds like a buzzword here, with no social distancing being followed. Hence, needless to blame Covid, rather than the airport management being caught off-guard with the sudden spike and not making enough preparations.

Mumbai Airport moves up a plan to reopen Terminal 1, will now reopen on October 13, 2021

Mumbai Airport was planning to open up Terminal 1 on October 20, 2021, in anticipation of the festive rush coming up for Diwali. Now, they have planned to move this up by a week by opening up Terminal 1 on October 13, 2021. From October 13, 2021, onwards, operations of Terminal 1 will resume.

The plan is that Go First will move to Terminal 1 on October 13, and AirAsia India will move to the terminal on October 16, 2021. The rest of the airlines (Trujet and StarAir) will move on October 20 2021, with IndiGo moving base on October 31, 2021.

The Mumbai Airport is also promising to deploy additional personnel to handle the passenger inflow and install additional X-ray machines to ensure faster scan of passenger’s carry on luggage.

Not just that, they are ‘asking‘ airlines to allow passengers to check-in their cabin baggage to avoid delays at the security checks. But if they will permit or not, it is still not known.

Bottomline

Due to the crowds building up at Mumbai Airport, the airport has decided to open its Terminal 1 operations from October 13, 2021, in a phased move. Not just that, the airport promises to put more people and machines in place to ensure people can clear the security check quickly.

Have you passed through Mumbai Airport over the weekend? What has been your experience?

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