As domestic air travel hits news highs, long queues seen at Delhi, Mumbai airports

Photo : BCCL

Serpentine queues at most airports — right from terminal entry, check-in, security, immigration and customs (for international arrivals), are being witnessed at the countries’ busiest hubs of Delhi’s IGI airport and Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA). Bengaluru’s small domestic departure security check, on the other hand, has also a big bottleneck.

Post Omicron, December 5 saw the highest number of domestic passengers at 4,13,716. The previous highs were on November 26 – 4,05,963 and November 27 – 4,09,831.

Long queues seen at airports

In view of the winter rush and long queues, airlines are ‘recommending’ domestic passengers flying out of places like Delhi to report for check-in three hours before departure ‘heavy congestion at airport security’. This is usually the norm for international routes.

Apart from this, immigration has become another pain point at the Delhi and Mumbai airport, especially for foreigners who are now required to give biometrics on arrival. “I watched a movie on my smartphone a few weeks ago when I flew into Delhi as it took an hour to clear immigration,” a senior expat working in India, who flew business class, told ToI.

A senior CISF official, on the other hand, has said that they are performing to the best possible extent in our domain. CISF checks passenger credentials on entry and does security check. “This is the holiday season, due to which there is rush at airports,” the official said.

26 additional staff have been deployed to aid passengers in the entry forecourt and security area, according to a DIAL spokesperson. “We are working with CISF to have full manning through flexi-shift from 5 am to avoid queues. We are also in discussions with airlines to reduce peak-hour departures from T3,” the person added.

Steps taken by Mumbai Airport

The Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) said, “With the revival of air traffic, CSMIA has seen rise in passenger traffic…. (We have) augmented manpower with the inclusion of ‘passenger service executives’ complemented with infrastructural facilities to meet passenger expectations and consistently deliver exemplary service standards.”

Some of the steps being taken to manage the rush at the airport include the implementation of a ‘passenger flow and queue monitoring system’ and deploying personnel at pre-security check for removing restricted articles to reduce rejection rates at automated tray retrieval system.

Further, the MIAL is engaged in active on-ground coordination for queue management and resource mobilisation, it said on security, customs and immigration. “In the event of sudden surge, passengers are prioritised as per departure timings,” the authority noted.

The MIAL has also deployed customer service executives at the curbside for proactive passenger assistance, managing queues at the entry gates and PRM assistance.

While they may come across as some proactive measures, the steps are proving to be of little help in the run-up to the holiday rush, according to sources across airlines. “Recently, some passengers flying into Mumbai from abroad missed their connecting domestic flights as it took them very long to clear immigration. They were upset and vented anger at our staff,” said a source.