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Airports in India’s biggest cities—Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru—are seeing heavy traffic as more travellers take to the sky.
What is driving the airport traffic?
- Long lines can be found at the airport’s entrance, check-in desks, security, and immigration.
- The baggage claim areas are also crowded.
- This is the outcome of an unanticipated increase in demand for air travel during the holiday season; in the previous two years, this demand was dampened due to the pandemic.
- For the previous ten days, air traffic has been 1-7% above pre-covid levels of 4 lakh daily travellers.
- As a result, the quantity of baggage belts, X-Ray machines, and automatic trays for security as well as the CISF’s check-in staff are insufficient to handle the demand.
Most affected airports
- At airports with high levels of connection, like those in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad, the congestion is worse.
- The worst-affected airport is Delhi, the busiest in India and the tenth busiest worldwide.
- With a 27% share of the international segment for the nation and a 20% share of all air traffic in India, Delhi manages the greatest portion of both domestic and international air traffic in the nation.
- The airport can accommodate over 70 million passengers annually with its three terminals.
- The airport has handled more than 190,000 passengers each day over the past 10 days, almost reaching its maximum capacity.
Is airport congestion an India-specific problem?
- Air travel still experiences difficulties on a global scale.
- London Heathrow, the busiest airport in Europe, needs to hire some 25,000 people to manage peak hours.
- To control traffic, Schiphol in Amsterdam has limited capacity to 20%.
- Following the pandemic’s mass layoffs, the aviation sector anticipates a realignment of worker numbers by the middle of 2023.
What is being done to reduce airport congestion?
- The aviation ministry has suggested fewer flights and adding staff to all check-in and baggage drop points.
- It has attempted to increase the number of baggage trays and X-ray equipment for security inspection.
- The government will also assess the number of people needed at the immigration counters and, if necessary, deploy more people.
- For domestic flights leaving from Delhi, IndiGo, the country’s largest airline, has requested that passengers arrive 3.5 hours in advance.
Easing the airport congestion
- There isn’t a quick fix, and the government’s plan of action will only provide short-term relief. It will take time to increase the staffing levels at immigration, security, and admission.
- It is anticipated that increased use of Digi Yatra, a contactless travel platform, by passengers without checked bags will help to reduce traffic.
- Mumbai and Delhi, for example, require more infrastructure.
- However, it is only anticipated that the Navi Mumbai Airport and the Jewar Airport in Noida will be operating by 2024.