It is Mitali Krishna’s first time at Aerohub inside the Chennai airport. She has just returned from a short trip to Bangalore and is tugging her carry-on suitcase through the mall, not looking to buy anything in particular. “I was looking to take the metro back home but saw Aerohub. I just thought I’d check it out,” she says, sipping on a coffee from Starbucks.
Mitali says that Aerohub seems like a nice ‘time pass’ for those who have time before, after and in-between flights. The two walkways connecting the mall and the terminals are not too long and seem like a quick escape when there is little time, and being stuck at the airport seems like a dull option.
Until recently, only a few shops were functional at the mall. Crowds would throng the PVR cinema hall here to watch films that they would not get tickets to at the more popular theatres in the city. An employee at the Starbucks here, operational since June 2023, says that they would have between 60 and 80 customers during the week but over double on the weekends. “Since people can shop now, I anticipate a larger number of people coming in,” the employee says.
