jrw8127

We're scheduled to leave Delhi on the Nov. 8 British Airways flight to London that departs at 3:30am (BA 142). Would we have any issues if we return to Delhi on a domestic flight that arrives at 10 or 11 pm on Nov. 7 (in other words 4-5 hours before our flight to London)? I assume that getting bags, transferring to Int'l terminal, and checking in/clearing security can easily be accomplished with that much time, but are there any issues with it being late at night, such as the bus between the domestic and int'l terminals running extremely infrequently or less staff on duty and thus longer delays? Any advice/suggestions greatly appreciated. Thanks.

snod08

Yes, if your inbound domestic flight gets in on time, you will be fine.
Four hours is a good amount of time to have to get everything done and get from the domestic airport to the international one. (Its essentially the same airport, but different terminals....but you need to transfer as you already seem to know)
However, you will be in trouble if your domestic flight gets delayed.
Wherefrom is the domestic flight coming from and what airline? That way someone can give you better ideas if you are cutting it too close.

Me personally, I dont mess with these sort of transfers in India. I allow several hours....enough to go the Radisson, have dinner, then continue to the next flight.

jrw8127

Most likely we will be flying from Mumbai (BOM) - though possibly from Udaipur. We have not actually booked the flight yet. I don't want to spend too much time sitting at the airport in Delhi, but also don't want to cut it too close. The flights I've been looking at are scheduled to arrive in DEL at 10:20or 10:50. Do you have any sense of how much we could be delayed before it would be a problem? Even if we were delayed until 11:30, that would still leave us 4 hours before our BA flight leaves at 3:30am - is that really not enough time? If it changes anything, we are flying business class (don't know if there is a priority check-in or not).

P.S. Thanks for the link to your trip report.

aniruddh77

Because you say November, there is a risk of fog in Delhi, though its only the starting stages if at all. There are various threads on FT about fog affecting DEL air traffic, that I suggest you read up on. If I were you, I'd play it safe - presuming that returning to LHR on the 8th is absolutely critical and the DEL-LHR fare doesn't allow for much flexibility - and plan to reach DEL at least 4-5 hours before the next flight. Worth having dinner cityside, airport food can be terrible. There is a regular (every 15 or 30 mins, can't remember) shuttle between domestic and international terminals. Don't worry, that time of the night is probably the busiest in the international sector, so there shouldn't be any issues (barring any fog, of course) with the shuttle.

Keyser

the fog doesn't start to set it till late november so i don't think the op should have any problems on that end....

i would think 4-5 hours is more than enough time to change between the domestic & international terminals....

however, if you don't want to risk your flight getting late or the foggy weather (not likely) then i would suggest getting in a few hours ealier....head over to the radisson for a nice meal & then come to the international terminal to check in for your flight....

anuj12

4-5 hours is more than enough to transfer from domestic to international terminal. Personally I would be a little wary of cutting it close as it would be a problem to miss your international flight. If possible I would recommend getting an evening flight to delhi and go to the Radisson for dinner to kill time.