Getting from Mumbai airport into the city

Getting through the border

Before any train, you pass Indian immigration and customs. Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (BOM) publishes no arrival queue times, so plan on 90 minutes from landing to sitting on the Metro: our allowance for the immigration desks, the baggage hall if your bags stop in Mumbai, customs, and the walk and security check at the station.

• Before you land. Have your e-Visa approved and the free e-Arrival card done online: visa and transit rules.
• The desks. No paid fast-track lane is advertised for foreign passports, so queue at the immigration desks with your passport, visa and e-Arrival card ready.
• Bags. If your bags are checked through to your final destination, you leave with only your hand luggage. On separate tickets, or if your airline can’t keep them checked through while you’re out, collect them at the belt and leave them at left luggage before heading into town.
• A slow queue costs you time in town, not your flight: the time you must head back doesn’t change.

The options at a glance

	Metro Line 3	Taxi	Uber, Ola or Rapido
To	Churchgate, CSMT and Cuffe Parade in south Mumbai, and stations on the way	Anywhere	Anywhere
Time	About 45 minutes to Churchgate	About 40 minutes to Juhu, 45 to Bandra, 75 to south Mumbai in daytime traffic (our estimates)	As a taxi
Single fare	₹10 to ₹70 by distance; about ₹40 to ₹50 to south Mumbai	On the meter	Shown in the app
Pay with	QR ticket from a counter or machine, or an NCMC card	The driver, by the meter	The app

Metro Line 3: the way into south Mumbai

• Finding it. After customs, follow the signs for the Metro. A covered footbridge of about 100 metres runs from the terminal to the lifts of the station, CSMI Airport T2, beside the P5 entrance, and you can push an airport trolley along it.
• The route. Take a train from platform 1, towards Cuffe Parade. It runs under the city by way of Bandra-Kurla Complex, Dadar and Worli to CSMT, Churchgate and Cuffe Parade. Churchgate, about 45 minutes from the airport, is a 5-minute walk from Marine Drive and about 15 minutes by taxi from the Gateway of India. MMRCL doesn’t publish journey times between stations: ours come from its 54 minutes end to end.
• How often. At the weekday rush hours a train comes about every 4.5 minutes. At quieter times, and at weekends, when the line runs a separate timetable, the gaps aren’t published: allow about 10 minutes on the platform, as the times on this page do.
• Tickets. Buy a paper QR ticket at the counter or a ticket machine in the station; NCMC cards also work at the gates. Fares go by distance, from ₹10 to ₹70: about ₹40 to ₹50 into south Mumbai, by our reckoning from the distance bands, and the machine shows the exact fare. Whether the machines take foreign cards isn’t published, so carry some rupees.
• Bags. Bags up to 25 kg and 80 by 50 by 30 cm ride free. A heavier bag, up to 32 kg, costs the price of an extra ticket.
• First and last trains. The published hours are the same all week:

	Time
First train from the airport into town	About 6:03am (the first leaves Aarey JVLR, four stops before the airport, at 5:55am)
Last train back from Cuffe Parade	10:30pm
Last train back from Churchgate	About 10:34pm
Last train back from CSMT	About 10:38pm

The times at Terminal 2, Churchgate and CSMT are our reckoning from the two ends of the line, so be on the platform a few minutes early. Weekends and public holidays can run to a different timetable: if you’re counting on the last train on one of those days, ask at the ticket counter when you arrive in town.

Few layovers need the last train. You leave Churchgate 2 hours 45 minutes before your flight, so it matters only for a flight after about 1:20am. Missed it? Take a taxi or app cab: allow 75 minutes from south Mumbai, less on empty roads at night.

Taxis and ride-hailing

• Where. On the arrivals side of Terminal 2: metered black-and-yellow taxis and Cool Cabs at P4, Ola and Rapido at P5, and Uber at P6. Auto-rickshaws wait too, but they only work the suburbs, no further south than Bandra and Sion, so they can’t take you to south Mumbai. Book at the official pickup or in the app, not with drivers who approach you in the hall.
• Time. Allow about 40 minutes to Juhu Beach, 45 to Bandra Bandstand, and 75 to the Gateway of India or Colaba in daytime traffic. These are our estimates: nobody publishes Mumbai’s road times, and on clear early-morning roads the Gateway is nearer 45 minutes.
• Fare. No official fare list is published. Taxis charge by the meter, and Uber, Ola and Rapido show the price before you book.

When a taxi is worth it. For Juhu Beach and Bandra, which the Metro doesn’t reach; with children, a group or heavy bags; and after the last train. For south Mumbai by day, the Metro avoids the traffic, which matters most on the way back.

Private transfers

A pre-booked car, with a driver waiting in arrivals at a price fixed in advance, costs more than a metered taxi but saves the search for one. It’s worth it with heavy bags or a group, or for a late return from south Mumbai when you’d rather not find a cab on the street.

Bags and terminals

• Left luggage. One counter, in Terminal 2 on Level 1, east side, at the P4 ground transport area. It’s after customs, so it’s for travellers with a visa, and it keeps bags for up to three months. Its prices and hours aren’t published: call +91 96190 20490 to check before you rely on it.
• Terminal 1. Some domestic flights leave from Terminal 1. A free airport coach links the terminals, from Level 1 (P4) at Terminal 2, and the Metro stops at Terminal 1 too, two stops on from Terminal 2.

Flying from Navi Mumbai (NMI) instead

Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMI) took its first passengers on 25 December 2025, and some airlines are moving flights there from Mumbai (BOM). Air India Express begins with four domestic flights a day in December 2026 and moves its Gulf routes in stages through 2027; IndiGo moves its flights to the Gulf, Dhaka and Jakarta from February 2027, with domestic flights to connect with them. Not every date is fixed yet, so check again close to travel. If either of your flights uses NMI, this guide’s timings don’t apply: changing between the two airports isn’t a transit, so you pass immigration and need a visa, and nobody publishes a transfer time between them. Check the airport code of both flights.

Timing your return

Aim to walk into Terminal 2 90 minutes before departure, carrying your passport and onward boarding pass. If you already have the boarding pass and only hand luggage, those 90 minutes cover departure immigration and the security check. On separate tickets or with a bag to drop, come back sooner: Air India’s international counters close 60 minutes before departure. The airport’s advice to arrive 4 hours early is for check-in.

The terminal door. Guards at the entrance check your ticket or boarding pass and your ID, so keep both on you, not in a bag. Mumbai doesn’t publish how early you can go in, so don’t plan on resting inside the terminal long before your flight; the left-luggage counter and Niranta’s landside rooms are on the arrivals side.

In practice, leave Churchgate station 2 hours 45 minutes before your flight, or Juhu Beach by taxi 2 hours 10 minutes before.

Layover	Time in Mumbai
5.5 hours	About 1 hour, at Juhu Beach by taxi
6 hours	About 1.5 hours, by taxi
7 hours	About 2 hours, by Metro
8 hours	About 3 hours
10 hours	About 5 hours
12 hours	About 7 hours

Each row allows 90 minutes from the plane to the train or taxi and 90 minutes at the airport at the end, as in the itineraries. At 5.5 and 6 hours it assumes a taxi to Juhu Beach, 40 minutes each way; from 7 hours, the Metro to Churchgate, 55 minutes in with the wait for a train and 75 back to the terminal.