In a few months, Chennai airport may be handling more number of domestic and international flights as the daily tally of COVID-19 cases is dipping, and more passengers are taking flights.
The airport must handle passenger and cargo aircraft efficiently with a single ground-handling agency (that carries out a host of jobs from handling baggage to assisting airlines on the tarmac). Air India Airport Services Ltd. took over as the ground-handling agency early this year after the previous contractor Bhadra’s term ended in December last year.
Airports Authority of India (AAI) officials said till last year, two firms were used for ground-handling operations but there was only one operator now.
“At present, there are about 200-230 domestic flights, 30-40 international and 20-25 cargo flights. This is only half of the pre-COVID traffic. There have been no hassles so far, and we have been able to manage. But we understand that from early next year, the number of flights may increase considerably. There will be adequate manpower added, and we should be able to handle it without any issues,” an official said.
Officials said the staff of the ground-handling agency were being trained regularly to handle the situation whenever there was increase in the number of flights.
“This will be a challenging task but we will find a way to handle it,” he added.
