Saturday, March 30, 2013

Chennai International Airport - India's Third Busiest



Chennai International. This photo only courtesy of syska.com.
Chennai International Airport services both international (Annadurai Airport Terminal) and domestic flights (Kamaraj Airport terminal). Its two terminals have been named after former chief ministers of the state of Tamil Nadu.

It's located at the fringes of the metropolis, along GST Road in the neighborhood of Tirusalam (Kanchipuram district). I've been to both terminals, but to be honest, I am a bit disoriented as to the location of both terminals because most of my transits there were hurried. In this post, we feature a few photos from out fast transit.

What's interesting is the new 5-story domestic airport: it's swanky, and can accommodate 1,000 more (every 3 hour turnover) passengers than the old terminal. The old domestic accommodates 2,300 passengers. On cursory glance, the new one employs generous space compared to the tightly squeezed check-in counters of the old. The international terminal of Annadurai, on the other hand, is more than serviceable. Check-in and check-out proceedings are fast. They have to. After all, it's being used by 13 million annual passengers and about 350 air crafts daily.

Historically, Asia's first ever flight was flown from Chennai in 1910 - a feat performed by Corsican hotelier Giacomo D'Angelis with his biplane. Eons later, Chennai has India's third busiest airport.

This is the Eye in the Sky!



Check-in counters of the domestic terminal.





International Terminal's front lobby.

Annadurai's Pre-departure Area

Baggage Belt at the airport. This photo only courtesy of wikipedia's nikkul.

Chennai International Airport.