fairly polite staff who all speak and understand English
Disadvantages:
overly laid back staff, no cash point machines
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
Calcutta (now called Kolkata) Airport is also known as CCU (airline short code) and NSCBI (Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International) and also Dum Dum (pronounced Dom Dom and not dumb dumb as you just imagined) Airport.
There are two main parts of the airport - Domestic and International and as I've only ever flown in or out via International I'll stick to discussing my experiences of the International side.
I've flown in and out of Kolkata 3 years in a row now during the December period - this is a popular time for people to visit as it's winter and for those of us acclimatised to the UK weather the Kolkata winter is pretty similar to our summer/springtime here.
I noticed when I first arrived in Kolkata in 2003 that the staff didn't seem to be in any hurry to deal with passengers coming off my flight - I took British Airways that year. Queuing at the Foreign Passport Holders queue, I noticed that there were 4 counters open and the staff seemed to have just woken up, they were yawning every few moments and in between seeing passengers they were having a good old stretch! They were very slow to process immigration papers and put stamps on relevant documents and it being 06:00 I was feeling quite hot and bothered by the time they let me through. I quickly popped into the Duty Free shop and picked up 200 cigarettes, which came to the equivalent of £8 and a bottle of Vodka which was about £6. The Duty Free shop was rather sparse - selling just a handful of branded cigarettes and not much of a range of alcohol and very little else. Proceeded to baggage reclaim and found airport staff there pulling people's suitcases off the moving conveyor belt and putting them to the side for people to claim. Now if you're used to this happening it's one thing, but not having experienced this before I waited over half an hour for my baggage to appear then someone who'd been sitting near me on the plane said "Maybe the staff have already pulled your suitcase off the conveyor belt?" Sure enough they had, so I marched over slightly miffed at having waited for my case for ages and loaded my case onto my trolley with my hand baggage. A staff member followed me to the Thomas Cook desk insisting that he push my trolley, but I was not in the least bit interested, I just wanted to get my money converted and get out in the fresh air as it was stiflingly hot! The Thomas Cook staff seemed to be even slower than the immigration desk staff and I waited another half an hour here for them to carry out one simple transaction with a couple in front of me.
The commission charged for converting my pounds to rupees was so small I couldn't stop myself grinning, it was about the equivalent of one pound! I left the airport as soon as I could with my mother and her sister waiting outside for me. Now this is the bit I need to warn you about! BEWARE the numerous porters and beggars outside the airport. They'll almost accost you as soon as you exit the building begging for money, children as young as 3 or 4 years old tug at your heart-strings, barely wearing any clothes with muddy faces asking you for a few rupees to eat. You might have a soft spot for cute kids but most of these are professionals, and be warned, if you are foolish enough to give one of them money you will be surrounded by hundreds of other beggars within seconds and there'll be no escaping. The "porters" are very annoying, having obviously been met by family members and a hired car with driver who is quite capable of pushing your trolley to the car the porters try to insist that you need their help. You have to be quite strong-minded and insist that you're fine without their help, as again, if you accept one person's help, you'll have hoards of them trying to "help" you out even more!
BACK TO ARRIVALS…
There's a toilet when you get to arrivals before you go through immigration and these really leave a lot to be desired. In the ladies toilets, the floors are always wet and there's one Indian style toilet (for those that don't know what one of these is, it's basically a hole in the floor with two brick sized blocks on either side where you have to squat and aim…) and one Western toilet, which usually does not have any toilet roll. You get off a plane, haven't been able to use the toilet since the seatbelt lights went on and now over an hour or so later you really don't want to use these toilets in the airport either. I have no idea about the state of the men's toilet and I don't think I want to know. On top of all this, there's usually a woman hanging around in the toilet who supposedly keeps the place in order, she's not adverse to asking you for money or for food. If you give her money, she's very helpful and dispenses soap in your hand for you and offers you cardboard like hand towels to dry your hands on.
There's a fairly large car park for which you have to pay to park in. It's nowhere near as extortionate as Heathrow Airport, but it's still not cheap by Indian standards. It's about 100 rupees as the minimum charge, which is about £1.15 (roughly 80 rupees in a £).
BACK TO DEPARTURES…
The whole airport is no smoking. Although once you've checked in and before you go through security to wait in the departure lounge you can sit and smoke in a waiting area and no one says anything. If you're a smoker I'd advise you to wait here before going through security as they confiscate anything resembling a lighter in your hand luggage, I got caught out in 2003 on the way back to London and just a few days ago as well. Funnily enough, last year I kept a cheap lighter in my hand luggage and matches and no one said anything and I went through security with both intact, this year, I didn't think to keep any matches as last year they'd let me through and guess what? I had both of my lighters confiscated, I was not best pleased but said nothing. They're just doing their job (sometimes properly, sometimes obviously not). Last year an elderly lady in front on me was stopped and her handbag was searched thoroughly and they took out her tweezers saying they weren't allowed. She kicked up a real fuss and they gave them back to her! I was stunned! They're totally inconsistent with their rules. I imagine if I'd kicked up a fuss about my lighters they might have returned them to me. Funny that I've flown out of Heathrow numerous times with lighters in my hand luggage and it's not posed a problem here at all!
To escort family or friends into the airport you have to pay 50 rupees per person. You have to buy a ticket before you get to the gate, only the passengers are allowed through free - you need to show your passport and airline ticket to be allowed in. In this area of the airport you have a few basic shops selling snacks and soft drinks. The toilets here are actually quite clean - which surprised me, I guess if people are paying 50 rupees a head they expect clean toilets. But as a passenger there's a 200 rupee charge levied on your ticket which is paid to the airport so I'd expect the passenger toilets to be clean too…
On checking in (I was the first passenger to check in at 07:00 for a 10:00 flight) and once checked in - this took a matter of minutes - I was told that my luggage was 3.9 kilos overweight and I was expecting to be fined but nothing was said (I even had local currency ready in my bag in case of this eventuality). Last year my suitcase was 5 kilos over the allowed weight and I was charged 6000 Rupees (about £75) - again shows how inconsistent they are with their rules and regulations - this is where the absence of a cash point machine is most evident as you have to go out of departures and into arrivals to the Thomas Cook desk to cash in money to pay for excess luggage as they won't accept credit cards! I don't understand the absence of cash machines as in the rest of the city there are machines all over the place!
After checking in you have to go to immigration and here I was stunned as there were no staff manning the desks, it was now 07:20. About 20 minutes later a handful of staff casually walk through a door (presumably from a staff area) and start sitting at the desks, with no sense of urgency or customer service. Begrudgingly they look up and signal for you to come over to their desks. This year I passed through this process within a minute or so once at the desk. On a previous occasion (2 years ago) the chap at the desk looked at my photo and at me, back at my photo then back to me, about a dozen times before asking me if I lived in London. I said "Yes!" and he let me through. This is the same photo that's been on my passport for 4 years now, no one at Heathrow or any other airport has batted an eyelid at it and this chap was checking it out as if I was a mass murderer or something. Weird!!!
The facilities in the departures area are minimal (just like the arrivals area), a duty-free shop which stocks cigarettes (not a large selection), alcohol (again not a large selection), a few bars of chocolate and not much else. There's also a snack bar, where you can buy drinks or snacks to eat whilst you wait for your plane to depart. There are also pay phones, which seemed to be constantly occupied.
Once you go through security (and have your tweezers and lighters confiscated depending on their moods) there's one public phone booth and dozens of people waiting to make calls. Another set of toilets, these were somewhat cleaner than the ones in arrivals, thankfully, but still wet floors…
Now here when you're called to the gate for your flight, there seems to be no order or method. They just call out the flight number and announce the gate number and everyone just charges towards the gate, queuing 5 or 6 across which is ridiculous. I was near the front of the queue and still about 100 people managed to get in ahead of me as people thought nothing of just pushing in wherever they felt like! If they thought to call people up by row numbers starting from the back of the plane, things might be more methodical…
TRANSPORT TO AND FROM AIRPORT
I know taxis are very happy to take you to and from the airport and charge what the locals think is quite a high rate - but for you and me it's a fraction of what one would pay for a black cab or minicab over here in the UK. The airport itself is 20km away from the main city and the outer roads actually are quite well maintained and offer a smooth journey for the weary traveller.
FACTUAL INFO ABOUT THE AIRPORT
International routes operating include Air India, British Airways, Gulf Air, KLM, Singapore Airlines, Thai, Bangladesh Biman, Royal Brunei Airlines and Royal Jordanian.
Most of the domestic airlines have direct services to and from the airport to other important places in India such as Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Patna, Lucknow and Bangalore
ALL THINGS CONSIDERED…
I know it seems I've had a right old moan about the airport but overall I'd say it was pretty average considering it's in India. The lack of facilities is made up by the fact that, mostly, the staff are fairly helpful and polite but just a wee bit too laid back. Things out there are improving slowly but surely and I imagine the next time I go over (which I don't plan for several years now) there may be a cash-point machine or two available and maybe more items available in the duty free shop and maybe some staff who are somewhat more alert. At least the staff at Calcutta Airport known how to smile (when prompted) which is more than I can say for the scary and overly intense staff at Muscat's Seeb Airport, but then again, that's possibly a story to be told in another review…
The contact details for Calcutta Airport:
Airport Director AAI (IAD) NSCBI Airport Kolkata - 700052 India Tel: 00 91-33-5119977 Fax: 00 91- 33-5119266 Email: airport@giasc101.vsnl.net.in
Thanks for reading.
NB: I'd also like to point out that all of the staff I came across at CCU spoke and understood English fairly well which was helpful for me as my Bengali is fairly limited (Bengali being the main language of the city).
