Chennai: Fabrice Saussereau, her husband and college-going daughter on their way to Paris, France, found themselves in a quandary recently at Chennai Airport. The family had come to Chennai to see off their son, who had been chosen for an exchange programme at IIT Chennai. Their flight was at 6am on July 29, but when they found that they couldn’t check in online 24 hour s prior, the family panicked and arrived at the airport on the 28th morning. “We thought the flight is overbooked and we’d have to find another flight,” says Fabrice.
But on arrival, they found that they did have confirmed seats, only, they wouldn’t be able to check in until 2 am, which meant they had nearly 16 hours to spend on the airport premises. Finally, the trio headed to something which looked inviting, a mall within the airport. “We didn’t know what this is, but at least there’s AC and clean toilets here. We m ight very well catch a movie and maybe eat something. It’s very hot at the airport terminal, and we don’t want to go back to the hotel, says Fabrice.
The mall is the Aerohub Mall, attached to the Chennai Airport at Meenambakkam, where a movie hall, food courts and some stores have already started functioning. However, the mall will be officially inaugurated only next month. Not all air passengers would be in as dire a situation as the Saussereaus, but the concept of a mall attached to the airport surely seem s to provide a lot of relief to tired and bored air passengers.
Aerohub Mall will be open to the public as well as the air passengers and will be the first such in the country.
The mall would appear the same as any other, except for the fact that you come across passengers with luggage trolleys everywhere, at the food court, the cinema and the shops. “Most of the customers we get are air passengers, but they come in just to spend some time, they can’t buy much as they can’t add to their luggage,” says a salesperson at the BodyShop outlet.
There will also be restaurants, coffee shops, gaming zones for children, fashion and more. “Basically it’s a lifestyle destination at the airport,” says Chandrakant Kanka ria, directo r of the company, Meenambakkam Realty Private Ltd.
The difference this time will be that the food court will be open 24/7.
30/07/2023 Asha Prakash/Times of India
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