Indore Bureau
Summary: Indore is known as the cleanest city in the country, but flyers are not happy with cleanliness at its airport. In the Airport Service Quality survey for July–September 2026, the cleanliness score slipped compared with the previous quarter, and despite a small rise in the overall score, Indore slipped to 10th place among 16 major airports in India.
What the survey found
Devi Ahilyabai Holkar International Airport in Indore is a key gateway for the city. Thousands of passengers fly out of it and land here every day. Their experience is measured through the Airport Service Quality survey conducted by Airports Council International. In this survey, passengers are asked about 31 different aspects of airport facilities and are asked to rate each one from one to five, where one stands for the lowest satisfaction and five for the highest. The report for the third quarter, July to September 2026, has recently come out. In this report, Indore airport received an overall score of 4.90 out of five. With this score, Indore stood 10th among 16 major airports in the country. In the second quarter, April to June, Indore had scored 4.88 and stood ninth. The overall score therefore improved by 0.02 points, yet the ranking slipped by one place. In the first quarter, January to March, Indore had stood 13th, so the ranking has moved up and down through the year.
Passengers mark down cleanliness
The most striking part of the report concerns cleanliness. Indore city has consistently led the country on cleanliness, but passengers’ experience at the airport tells a different story. On cleanliness, passengers gave a score of 4.91 out of five, compared with 4.93 in the previous quarter — a fall of 0.03 points. Passengers also appeared unhappy with the cleanliness of washrooms and toilets. On this point, the third quarter score was 4.92, against 4.93 in the second quarter. The fall may look small, but it carries a clear message: the very places where passengers expect the highest standard of cleanliness are where the experience is weakening. Passengers also gave lower marks on the value for money of food and drink inside the airport. On restaurants offering value for money, the score was 4.89, down from 4.92 in the previous quarter. Availability of charging stations scored 4.92 and availability of seating near gates scored 4.92, down from 4.93 and 4.94 respectively in the previous quarter.
Why the ranking slipped despite a higher score
It is natural to expect that a higher score should bring a better ranking, but that did not happen this time. The reason is that other airports also improved their scores, and some improved faster than Indore. The scores of Raipur, Dehradun, Amritsar and Srinagar airports also fell, but competition overall was so close that an improvement of 0.02 points was not enough to hold on to ninth place. The average rating of the 16 airports covered in the survey was also 4.90. Indore’s score is therefore equal to the average, not above it. Under the memorandum of understanding for the airport, the target for an excellent rating has been fixed at 4.68 out of five. Indore’s 4.90 is 0.22 points above that target, so by the minimum standard the performance cannot be called weak. Even so, expectations from the airport of a city known as the cleanest in the country are far higher than merely average.
Where other airports stand
In the third-quarter list, Pune airport stood first with 4.98 points. Chennai and Patna airports scored 4.94 each and stood second. Calicut and Varanasi airports recorded 4.93, while Goa airport scored 4.92. Indore, with 4.90 points, stood 10th. These figures show that the gap between the top airports and Indore is not very large, but even a small gap can mean a difference of several places in the ranking. The survey is commissioned by the Airports Authority for government airports where annual passenger numbers exceed two million. It takes passengers’ views on security checks, cleanliness, staff behaviour, food, seating and charging facilities. It is therefore not just a number, but a full account of the passenger experience.
Where Indore airport stood earlier
Indore airport’s past record shows that it has reached the top before. In the second quarter of 2023, Indore secured the first rank with a score of 4.94. Since then, the first rank has not come again. In the fourth quarter of 2024, Indore reached second place with 4.97 points, but in the first and second quarters of that same year it had stood 12th. In the second quarter of 2025, Indore secured third rank. In 2026 so far, Indore has not reached the top five. Over the past three years, the ranking has risen and fallen every quarter, and staying at the top permanently has proved to be a challenge. This ups and downs make one thing clear: the biggest challenge is consistency. A good performance in one quarter is not enough. Cleanliness, seating, food prices and charging facilities need the same attention every quarter.
The gap between the city’s image and its airport
Indore’s identity as the cleanest city in the country is built on the shared effort of citizens and the administration in keeping streets, markets and public places clean, and it is talked about across the country. When passengers at the airport of the same city give lower marks for cleanliness, that gap itself becomes a question. An airport is the first door to a city. A visitor arriving from outside forms an impression of the city first from the atmosphere at the airport. The cleanliness of the airport therefore has a direct bearing on the image of the city. It is also important to remember that crowds of passengers, pressure of flights and use of facilities within limited time make it harder to maintain cleanliness at an airport. Washrooms, waiting areas and food areas need cleaning constantly. If cleanliness slips even slightly in these places, passengers notice it at once, and it shows up in the survey.
What needs to improve next
The signals from the report point to a few clear priorities. First, special attention is needed on the cleanliness of washrooms and toilets, since passengers gave lower marks on this point than in the previous quarter. Second, seating near gates and availability of charging stations need to be increased, so that passengers do not face inconvenience during long waits. Third, the complaint of passengers about food prices inside the airport needs to be taken seriously, since the score on value for money also fell. No official reaction from the airport management to this report appears in the reports checked. It would therefore be premature to say what steps the management plans to take on these points. Only the next quarter’s report will show whether the scores on cleanliness and facilities improve or not. Until then, this report stands as a warning for Indore that the same level of effort that built its cleanliness identity is needed at its airport too. Another relevant factor for Indore airport is that flight timings and routes changed under the winter schedule that came into force on 25 October, which also affects passenger numbers and movement. Keeping the standard of facilities intact amid rising passenger numbers will become even more important in the coming months.
Disclaimer: This news has been prepared on the basis of available sources and verification. If there is any factual error, a correction will be published.
