Provide requisite facilities, install additional capacity: Aviation Secy to airport operators

New Delhi:  The Civil Aviation Ministry on Wednesday asked airport operators to install additional capacity and redesign their systems and processes, wherever needed to be in readiness for any peak demand scenario.

Secretary, Civil Aviation, Rajiv Bansal held a meeting with airport operators of Bengaluru and Mumbai, which was attended by safety and security regulators including Director Generals of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) & Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) and other senior officials, to take stock of the measures taken at Bengaluru and Mumbai airports for decongestion during peak hours.

It was emphasised by Bansal that airport operators have to provide the requisite facilities commensurate with the growth in number of passengers, facilitating hassle free travel for air passengers.

Moreover, airport operators were advised to give daily report on the aspects, including putting sign boards to indicate the real time basis waiting time at entry gates, security lanes and also sharing of the same through social media feeds, whether all airlines are manning their check-in counters adequately, installation of additional x-ray machines to increase the number of security lanes, rebalancing the peak hour flight schedule with the availability of security lanes, and disseminating all the relevant information to passengers.

A senior official of the Aviation Ministry said that with the continuous monitoring of the situation at major airports and augmentation of capacity, the situation has improved and is likely to get further eased in coming days.

It had come to the notice of the Government that a few major airports are facing congestion and longer waiting time at various touch points in passenger processing due to an increase in the number of air travellers on account of seasonal travels.

A meeting in this regard was earlier held by Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on December 7, where major airport operators were directed to identify bottlenecks and augment capacity to meet the growing passenger demand.

–IANS