It's responsibility of airport operator to provide conducive environment for passengers to travel: Scindia

New Delhi: “It’s the responsibility of the airport operator to provide a conducive environment for the passengers to travel,” said Civil Aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said on Wednesday, concluding a 3-hour long meeting with airlines, airports, CISF and BCAS.

The minister emphasised that this is a great time for the country’s civil aviation sector and the boom needs to be accompanied with a capacity increase across the board.

India houses the third largest aviation market, and with that, “we must also strive to be the best service providers”, Scindia said.

The meeting comes amid chaotic scenes at the Delhi airport where long queues were seen during security checkpoints. Passengers said they had to wait for two-to-three hours in the clearance area before clearance area before the final departure.

The minister today assured that the passenger congestion at entry points/check-in counters at T-3 (Terminal-3) of Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport has eased. “Four more X-Ray machines added at Security Hold Area, display boards showing wait time put up,” Scindia said.

The electronic display boards will display how long passengers had to wait at each of the Delhi airport’s terminal entry gates. These are expected to help passengers move to gates with lesser waiting times and thereby ease congestion at other gates.

The minister also said that deployment of more security personnel including those from the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) have already started and will progressively increase in coming days.

More security personnel will help in smooth scanning of tickets and IDs before passengers enter the terminal.

“These steps will be emulated at the Bengaluru and Mumbai airports as well. At BIAL, two additional X-ray machines have been operationalised today,” the minister said.

The aviation minister said that the boom in India’s civil aviation sector needs to be accompanied by a capacity increase across the board. “A strong Rs 98,000-crore capex for airports is in the pipeline,” he added.

On Tuesday, domestic airlines carried nearly 4.12 lakh passengers.

Earlier in the day, the civil aviation ministry said that necessary actions taken to reduce congestion at the Delhi airport have resulted in “least wait time” for boarding at check points and entry gates.

The aviation ministry, on Tuesday, asked airlines to deploy adequate manpower at all check-in and baggage drop counters well in advance to ensure decongestion and smooth flow of passengers at airports.

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