Work on to Ease Delhi Airport Bottlenecks, Says Scindia as Chaos Takes Sheen Off Holiday Cheer

For over three days, social media was flooded with pictures and videos of harassed passengers at Terminal 3 of the Delhi airport. With bottlenecks at entry gates, long queues and fights at the X-ray area for cabin baggage, missed flights and harassed passengers, the government could no longer remain silent.

It’s a mixed feeling for the government. In post Covid-19 times, the domestic traffic has increased. This comes as a huge relief as the hospitality and tourism sector was badly hit. From January to September 2022, domestic airlines carried 874.24 lakh passengers, which is about 531.11 lakh higher than the previous year, and registered a growth of about 64.61 per cent. This has put pressure on the infrastructure ? as the chaos at the airport shows.

Under pressure from social media complaints, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia visited T3 early on Monday morning and spent more than four hours with the officials, issuing strict directives to airlines and Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL). The ministry expects things will be sorted out over a week.

Speaking exclusively to News18.com, Scindia said: “We have studied the process to understand where the actual bottleneck is. In summary, the main problem areas are as follows. We have 14 departure gates that have become a chokepoint. We have now increased it to 16 gates for passengers. I have also mandated that there should be boards across every gate that display waiting time so that passengers can enter through the gate that has lesser waiting time. We have ushers in place and also the DigiYatra app which I feel will facilitate the crowds.”

But the biggest problem remains where passengers put in their hand luggage into trays for scanning. While the trays are large, the retrieval system is not fully equipped, thus triggering maximum fights in the area ? including some that News18.com has been privy to. “Yes, we did notice this and the clogging. Initially, we had 14 trays but now we have increased it to 16. Over the next few days, we will see if there is enough space to increase it to 17 and eventually hope to increase it to 20,” Scindia said.

Several first-time flyers who are ignorant about the system also add to the chaos. “This is an issue. We have to sensitise the CISF staff who are adequate in number now to ensure that they can cope with patience with the increased flow of passengers,” the minister said.

December to New Year sees peak airline traffic across the country but the figures from Delhi are higher. There are several international passengers who use T3 as a connecting airport. Speaking about the mess, Vikas Behl, a passenger, said: “I missed a flight as the boarding gate had closed by the time I reached. Then began my ordeal as I had to buy another ticket which the airlines refused to reimburse.”

When News18.com asked Scindia about the passengers being harassed, he said: “We are speaking to airlines and airport authorities. It has to be a joint effort and I am hopeful things will be sorted. It will become a seamless process. We have gone from pre-Covid-19 era to zero passengers to a number which has surpassed the pre-Covid-19 times. We have almost 4, 25,000 passengers per day which is a sign of confidence in the aviation sector.”

As the minister walked out, many things seemed to have been put in place. There were more volunteers guiding the passengers, more entry gates were opened up and the situation inside the airport seemed more seamless and better managed. However, the challenge begins post December 23 when the Christmas and New Year crowd begins. It is then that the new guidelines will be put to test.

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