I have travelled often from USA to Madras now called Chennai. In the past decade, since 1997 I have seen that there has been a tremendous growth in both the passengers and the number of airlines operating their flights from Madras.
For a fact in the year 1999, at the height of Y2K software boom, Lufthansa had only 3 flights per week from Madras to Frankfurt. Now they operate nearly 7 flights per week to Bombay, Madras, Bangalore and Hyderabad.
International Arrivals:
It takes nearly 1 hr for you and your family to clear immigrations. However by the time your arrive at baggage claim, most of your luggage would have arrived and be neatly arranged to the side.
International Departure:
One should arrive atleast 3 hours prior to actual flight departure. The baggage check in takes about 30-60 minutes, immigration clearance takes another 45-60 minutes minimum. On weekends and peak season (dec-jan) it will take another 30 minutes for each one of these.
Summary: All Indian airports need major infrastructure developments. The 4 main international airports in India, Delhi-Bombay-Calcutta-Madras, were all built by the British during WW2. Since Indian independence to 1991 India was a closed economy. With Liberalisation and globalization, all Indian airports need major facelift as well as investment to improve their services.
Bharat mata ki jai.