Airports likely to remain congested till Jan first week

The earlier peak was 4,20,000 passengers, which the country witnessed before Covid impacted air travel in March 2020. For the first time this year daily domestic passenger numbers have consistently stayed over 4,00,000 mark, however, fliers stayed in the range of 3,50,000 to 3,75,000 for most of the days this year.

The inability of airports, airlines, and government agencies at the airport to meet the rise in demand has been attributed as a cause for chaos at entry gates, airline check-in counters and security check-in gates, leading to complaints of several passengers missing their flights.

“The situation would ease with various initiatives announced after aviation minister’s Jyotiraditya Scindia visit to the Delhi airport, but it is likely to get normal once passengers going on holidays reduce, by the first week of January,” said a government official. He added that the situation is being monitored by the aviation ministry.

Another official added scheduled airlines have been allowed to operate 3,200 flights daily, but airlines are operating over 2,800 flights. Passengers have increased, leading to flights flying almost full — many airlines are reporting record load factors (percentage of seats full on flights).

Fewer flights lead to a situation where more passengers will have to be accommodated. To put things in context, airlines carried 4,20,000 passengers pre-Covid on about 3,000 flights a day — this meant the distribution of passengers at various times during the day.

“The situation with respect to the number of flights is also set to ease with airlines getting their aircraft back after they were grounded due to unavailability of engines. The number of flights is expected to increase,” said the official. IndiGo and GoFirst were among those who could not operate all their aircraft due to unavailability of engines.

Scindia held consultations with airports, airlines and agencies on Monday and announced a slew of measures, including the reduction in the number of flights during peak hours, redistribution of flights to other terminals, increase in automatic tray retrieval systems as well as X-ray machines at airports.

The government Tuesday issued an order asking the airlines to ensure their counters at airports are always manned.

“It has come to the notice of the ministry of civil aviation that the airline check-in counters at certain airports are found unmanned or inadequately manned during early morning hours leading to congestion. Scheduled airlines are therefore advised to deploy sufficient manpower at all check-in/baggage drop counters well in advance to ensure decongestion and smooth flow of passengers at airports,” read the order issued Tuesday.

“Besides the above, airlines are requested to place real time data on their social media feeds regarding waiting time at respective airports’ entry gates,” the order read.

Sources in airlines say airline counters are not the main cause for delays and a long-term solution to the problem would be to bring in reforms in the standard operating procedures followed at security check-in gates.