MAA T2 Lounges
 

Quick questions:
1. With the new integrated terminal T2 at MAA, do we have a *A lounge? It appears from *A Lounge Finder website the old Maharaja Lounge is now permanently closed. What are the complimentary lounge options if I am flying J on LH late Dec 2023.
2. I also have a guest flying on non Star Alliance flight (QR). Any chance I can take this guest? I am skeptical (if the answer is a Contract lounge).
3. Any general feedback on the new T2? What happened to the several lounges that I used to enjoy in the international terminal just a few years ago?
4. I am confused on the word "integrated"...what does it really mean? Domestic and International are now in the same terminal?
5. What happened to the terminal that they opened not too long ago? if I recall vaguely back in 2014 or 2015 when I read some news articles about glass panels falling off from such a brand new terminal. What is being housed there, now?


https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...4f7a0a18dc.jpg

1. No *A lounge. LH will offer you a contract lounge - Oberoi or Meridian seem to be the choices now...
2. No QR guests. And it would a no even if it was not a contract lounge. *A rules - your guest has to be travelling on your flight. So even a pax on another *A flight cannot be guested.
3/4/5. T2 just started a couple of months ago. It's a new modern terminal. I think T1 is still operational for domestic. I don't know the plans there either but I am guessing that LCCs will continue to use that for domestic operations at least.

Same building but separate areas. Domestic passengers cannot access the International transit area & International passengers cannot access the Domestic area.

Did you mean “can” instead of “cannot”?
If it is cannot, then what good is it?

Here's a bit of history. MAA is getting upgraded right now. T1 and T4 will be used for domestic flights. T4 exclusively for TATA airlines (Air India, Air India Express + Air Asia India, Vistara)
T2 is the newly built integrated terminal (but only for international flights) which has taken over all international operations from T3 + T4 and does not have a proper lounge. It has a makeshift Plaza premium lounge (for now). The Maharaja lounge that was situated in the older terminal cannot be used right now. Phase 2 of the upgrade project is to demolish T3 and build a new international terminal to boost capacity which is going to start in a while. I am not aware of any contract lounges there. Things may change before Dec 2023 and from initial reviews T2 seems to be a better terminal than T3 and T4. Hope I've answered all your questions.

'Cannot'.

At every airport in India, even if sharing the same terminal, International & Domestic passengers are restricted to their respective areas.

Thank you...this helps. Apologies...I have a few more questions:

1. What was the terminal number that was (re)built in 2014? Because I recall that had a few more lounges and they were good when I last visited many years ago. Are they all closed?

2. So, once Phase 2 is complete, they will move international operations again to the "new international terminal"? If yes, that seems like a lot of shifts. If yes, that reflects very poor planning and design.

3. When they built this "supposedly great T2" why were the lounges not given priority? Why only ONE lounge and that too a makeshift one? It does not instill confidence in AAI's abilities. If I compare non-AAI managed ones like BLR, BOM, DEL they are all class apart.

4. When (or if) will MAA get out of the clutches of AAI and get privatized?

5. If the end state scenario will be T1 and T4 are both domestic with international in the middle, it appears to be another shoddy design principle...as someone transferring to another domestic airport (say DEL-MAA-Tiruchi/CBE/Madurai) would have to traverse a long distance, especially in the absence of people mover system like a monorail .

6. Anyone with half a brain would design a monorail or inter-terminal train to traverse these terminals that are built on a straight line (building terminals on a straight line is a bad design to begin with as it is not efficient for transfers). They are investing in travelators/moving walkways which are pretty slow and inefficient especially when the distance to cover is about 1-2 kms. A train would be much faster.

Really fed up with AAI

Forgive me please for my despondence. This design makes no sense especially when the local/Indian news media portrays this "integrated" terminal as the best thing since sliced bread. What good does it do to keep domestic and international traffic under one roof when they cannot access each other? A single roof makes no difference from a passenger point of view.

Either this is a ridiculous design principle or maybe (most likely) I am missing something basic...Sigh!

Has anyone looked at the official website of MAA? It takes it to an AAI portal...
https://www.aai.aero/en/airports/chennai

It is everything how a website should NOT be.
1. It is pathetically slow, especially it is a static website
2. Has absolutely no useful information
3. The info contained is dated and irrelevant (example: dining choices and prices)
4. Whoever designed that website and still maintains it deserves a kick in the you know where
5. Example: take a look at the flight schedules...I have never seen an airport website (in the US) list their schedules in a PDF and that too in such a sub-intellectual manner. Can a normal person read it and find useful? It is too "inside baseball" and esoteric. Not user friendly at all.

https://www.aai.aero/sites/default/f...rch%202023.pdf

Like a normal passenger does not know W22 as Winter 22 (is there even a winter in Chennai LOL), Aircraft type, DOOP (what is that?)? Why cannot it list the scheduled arrival time, normal airport names instead of cryptic codes, list the days as normal humans do (M, Tu, W, Th, F, Sa, Su)?

It is absolutely shoddy work.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...95cc1f579d.jpg

You people just complain and complain and complain. Be grateful the site has flight schedules and not train schedules.

They can access each other. Passenger and other flow is regulated.

1. T4 was built in 2014. Before that, it was just T3 and T1.
2. Not sure about their plan after phase 2 modernization is complete. They recently launched an airport mall and MLCP and now they want to shut down the airport due to the amount of parking spaces mallgoers are talking up. AAI in a nutshell
3/4/5/6 MAA was up for privatization a decade ago but due to strong protests, they couldn't privatize it. With general elections coming up in 2024, they will probably think of privatization only after the end of 2024. MAA has a lot of potential but the sluggishness of AAI is holding it back. Cathay has not restarted their service yet and we've lost ANA. The frequency of domestic services is less compared to other airports like BLR, HYD, BOM, and DEL. The state government is pushing for a new greenfield airport. Hopefully, it goes through and we will have two airports in the future. Coincidentally MAA opened a new Travel club lounge today with separate space for J and F. Looks neat!

Entry for all passengers is the same. Check-in is all in the same area. But after that International passengers go through immigration & into a separate area. The integrated terminal helps keep everything in the same building & also helps with transit.

A Question

in March ‘24 I am arriving on BA from LHR and then travelling on with Indigo to Colombo


Am I likely to be in the same terminal and are there Pay lounges?

If you're connecting from an international flight to a destination in India, making the transit within a single terminal is way better than having to trundle between two separate terminals.