Not a long time ago, when the city of the seven islands was Bombay, the international airport was called Sahar Airport and the domestic airport was called Santacruz Airport. With the name changing to Mumbai, the city’s airports also got new names. Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport was Sahar Airport’s new name and Chhatrapati Shivaji National/Domestic Airport was Santacruz airport’s new name. Maharashtra’s great Maratha king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj who already had a park at Dadar, a major railway station in South Mumbai, besides different chowks, roads and lanes in the city named after him now had the two airports named in his honour.
Michael Jones, an Australian businessman who frequents India regularly recounts the confusion that ensued especially for foreigners post the renaming. “I remember telling the cab guy “Chhatrapati Shivaji” reading the name of the airport on my ticket, and the poor guy looked all lost and confused. Then he told me that there is a station and two airports by that name.”Thankfully, now over time the situation has improved as people are used to the concepts.
Mumbai International Airport is literally the “Gateway to India” as almost 20 million passengers travel to India via its gates annually. “Mumbai’s Chhatrapayi Shivaji International Airport got its record passenger numbers in December 2009”, according to an Airport spokesperson as reported in many of the city’s newspapers. One of the busiest airports in the world it ranked fourth in the world for good quality services according to a Quality Survey that appeared in the Hindustan Times on July 27, 2010.The article went on to add that the airport was ranked 87th the previous year and since then has made a lot of efforts to improve facilities and services.
Lareina D’souza a passenger who noticed this change says, “The airport now has a better look with typically Indian paintings all over the walls in the waiting rooms which many people liked. The creation of an Indian flavor is very authentic. The immigration and staff behavior is also better now. Only the Gate numbers are not properly put up confusing passengers often. An airport official who doesn’t wish to be named said, “We had to go through some etiquette training sessions as well as organization skill classes, etc.”
A large amount of India’s air traffic is handled in Mumbai by its two airports. Almost all International flights to India come via Mumbai. A modernization project to re-vamp the architecture of the airport to fit international standards was done in February 2006.This included cleanliness which was considered to be a big problem.D.Rajagopalcharya a frequent traveler says, “The airports were very dirty before the re-vamp the toilets were very unhygienic. But now the airport has cleanliness staff always patrolling to clean up even the smallest mess which is really good for India.”
The two airports have good connections to each other with free shuttle services every half an hour as well as pre-paid taxi services. The local B.E.S.T bus number 308 goes from Andheri station to the airport. Some tourist like Lisa Mcmohan who prefers to see the city first hand travelling by the local trains and buses says, “I used the bus to get to the airport.”But Raj Gandhi who works at the airport says, “The frequency of bus number 308 is very poor often it’s very late and tends to get too crowded.”Many people agree with this and feel that more buses going to the airport should be started.
The airport has a number of taxis and auto rickshaws outside but, “They often tend to overcharge and think we are also foreigners”, says Mohammad Khan a frequent flier. Khan adds, “They often take the foreigners for a ride charging them three to four times more the price on the meter.”A number of auto rickshaw and taxi drivers agreed to this fact saying that they are poor and the foreigners have a lot of money so they are just pricing rates as per the foreign country rates. Rental cars and bikes are also available for tourist.
A number of hotels are located nearby and provide top quality services to tourist and guests. The Hyatt Regency,Le Royal Meridian, The Intercontinental all five-star hotels located on Sahar Road very close to the airport. Hotels like Leela Palace,Grand Maharata Sheraton,The Orchid and Kohinoor are comparatively cheaper. There are also economical hotels, cheap inns and lodges in the surrounding Chakala area.”Many foreign tourists prefer inns as they are more economical, says Harsh Lal who runs one of the economical low cost inns.”The services may not be five-star but they are pretty modest”, according to Kai Li who prefers to stay at an inn than a five-star hotel.
Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport is truly one of Mumbai’s icons as it’s the first symbol of India that any foreign tourist arriving in Mumbai sees.
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