One Ujjwal Trivedi, who identifies himself as a ‘young and energetic’ journalist, on Wednesday, took to Twitter to share his woes about inadvertently reaching the wrong terminal at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Mumbai International Airport and proceeded to question PM Modi and India’s development story.
My experience with @AkasaAir pic.twitter.com/emDyT5IzpS
— Ujjawal Trivedi (@iujjawaltrivedi) February 22, 2023
Trivedi said he was taking an early morning flight from Mumbai to Bangaluru and he reached ‘Mumbai International Airport’ because his ‘boarding pass’ said so. However, upon reaching, he was informed by the CISF there that he had reached the wrong terminal and his flight will depart from the domestic terminal. At this point, Trivedi gets flabbergasted and after a lot of hurdles manages to reach the domestic terminal because he was ‘young and energetic’.
However, he put up a word of caution for PM Modi and the ministry of civil aviation to be clearer in communication especially when we are moving ahead by leaps and bounds and even hosting events such as G20 summits. He said that his ticket clearly said that his flight was from the international airport, when in fact, it was taking off from the domestic terminal.
To prove his point, he shared a screenshot of what he referred to as his ‘boarding pass’.
However, if one notices properly, the above is an itinerary, that is details of his tickets. Here is a full screenshot of his ticket retrieved from the Akasa Air website with help of PNR which can be seen in the above screenshot.
As one can see in the above screenshot, his ticket has details that his flight departs from Mumbai T1 – which is the domestic terminal of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai. Terminal 2 at the airport is used for international flights, however, a small number of domestic flights also operate from there.
Mumbai only has one airport that serves commercial flights, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport. However, it has terminals, T1 and T2, for domestic and international flights. This is usually the case for all international airports. For example, Ahmedabad has Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport. However, the same airport premises has a domestic terminal and an international terminal. The Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi has three terminals, T1, T2 and T3.
Various flights operate from various terminals in such airports with multiple terminals. When one books a ticket from a particular airport with multiple terminals, the terminal number is mentioned on the boarding pass. One obtains a boarding pass by carrying out web check-in and getting a copy of the same, or by approaching the check-in counter at the airport. The departure terminal number is also displayed on various flight booking sites and the airline’s website/app. Generally, the assigned terminal for a flight does not change.
Ujjwal Trivedi mistook the two different terminals at the Mumbai airport to be different airports. But actually, they are separate terminals located in the same airport, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Mumbai International Airport. When international flights from an airport, it is called an international airport, it does not mean it serves only international flights. While different terminals provide customer services to different airlines and flights, the operational part remains centralised. All flights still use the same runways, controlled by the same ATC tower using the same radar and other services. In fact, most airports also have separate cargo terminals, but they are still parts of the same airport.
This is what the boarding pass looks like. As one can see, it has details of the departure of flight, from which terminal at the departure airport to which terminal at the destination airport. In the above case, the flight took off rm Terminal 1 (T1) of Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi and arrived at Terminal 1 (T1) of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad. However, both these terminals are ‘domestic’ terminals, i.e., usually, domestic flights take off from there. But, they are both part of the same international airports.
The ticket, as well as the boarding pass, have clear details of the terminals from which the flight will depart, and on which terminal the passenger will arrive at the destination airport. This is standard international practice and caveat emptor. Let the buyer beware. It is not PM Modi or Civil Aviation ministry’s job to educated ‘young and energetic’ journalists to see where to find details of their terminal on their ticket.
In case of airports such as Delhi, the airport runs a shuttle service connecting the two terminals. Delhi airport’s terminal 2 and terminal 3 are also connected such that one can walk between to terminals. Similarly, Ahmedabad airport also has a walkway connectivity between two terminals.
