Landing at Chennai International Airport

What MAA is like

Chennai is a port city and the hub of the south, and the people around you are often here for medical treatment, for work at the industrial belt, or on their way to the temple towns further down the coast. The terminal has been extended more than once, so the walk mixes newer sections with older ones. It is hot and humid for most of the year, something you feel the second you step through the exit doors to the pick-up area. That alone is a reason not to stand outside fiddling with a phone.

On arrival

Turn the line on as soon as the aircraft stops; in-terminal reception is unremarkable in the good sense, with no long underground stretch to worry about. Immigration keeps moving on an ordinary flight, though queues lengthen noticeably when several Gulf arrivals land back to back before dawn. After reclaim the exit to the pick-up area is close to the belts, and the heat meets you the moment you are through. If you intend to take the metro, look up the line and your destination station while you are still inside where it is cooler. Sorting that out on the kerb in the middle of the day is a miserable way to start a trip.

How far the airport Wi-Fi gets you

Free Wi-Fi exists inside the building, but the sign-up page is slowest exactly when it is busiest, in the pre-dawn hours when the most passengers land together. Sessions are capped and have to be renewed when they expire. Worth knowing too: the outdoor pick-up area is not really inside the Wi-Fi footprint, so if you plan to book a car once you are outside, book it while you are still indoors, or use your own line and skip the whole question of session timers.

Getting into town

What sets Chennai apart from other big Indian cities is that a metro line serves the airport and runs into the centre, which sidesteps the traffic entirely. If your stay is not near a station, most people take a taxi from the airport's queue or book through an app, and half an hour is a reasonable floor depending on distance. The apps you will actually open are the map and the ride-hailing one, plus a translation now and then for signs written in Tamil script. Around 200 to 400MB covers the trip in, assuming you are not watching video on the way. Coverage along the corridor into the centre is dense enough that the map keeps up.

What people ask about this airport

• Plan the metro while indoors — It is hot outside and there is no Wi-Fi there, so check your station and the last service before you walk out.
• Pre-dawn banks mean long queues — Between three and five in the morning several Middle East arrivals land together, so allow extra time at the desks.
• Tamil script on the signs — Some street signs are in Tamil script, and a translation app ready to go helps when you are giving a driver an address.