In a set of guiding principles established by the government, airports have been advised to curb the proliferation of retail outlets and lounges at airports if these impact their capacity to handle passengers.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation has also told airports to ensure that the retail shops do not obstruct the movement of passengers. Terminal buildings are often designed to force travellers to walk past duty-free outlets and other shops from the security-check area to the boarding gates, instead of giving them access to a clear passage.
In fact, waiting lounges, shops, and office spaces have been demolished at Delhi and Mumbai airports since last winter to facilitate passenger movement, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said, addressing a press conference on Friday.
Congestion prevention
These are among the measures that airports were told to adopt in order to deal with congestion during peak travel seasons, and come after the stampede-like situations witnessed across major airports last December.
Another step that has been taken is the enhancement of airport infrastructure. For instance, the number of entry lanes at passenger terminals has risen to 312 across 16 airports, recording 46% growth over the last year. The number of check-in counters and immigration counters have each gone up by 24% ver the same period, while the stock of x-ray machines have risen 37%.
Similarly, the workforce of the Central Industrial Security Force deployed at airports has also grown 21%, from 20,487 to 24,733 personnel.
Full-body scanners
From May 2024, passengers can expect to start seeing faster movement through security due to the planned installation of full-body scanners and advanced computer tomography X-ray machines that will mitigate the need to remove electronic items from hand-baggage, said Zulfiquar Hasan, Director General of the Bureau of Civil Aviation. The initial deadline for major airports to install these machines by December 31, 2023 has been relaxed as there were concerns about their availability.
Digi Yatra gates, which enable passengers to scan their faces and barcoded e-tickets to enter passenger terminals and the pre-embarkation security check area, have been installed at 13 airports, with 25 more airports expected to deploy them next year.
