Puja rush leaves airport gasping

Kolkata: Just a 40% increase in the number of daily fliers was enough to throw flight schedules haywire at the city airport on Sunday.
Security officials had a tough time controlling the increased number of fliers. As a result, most outgoing flights got delayed by about 15 to 30 minutes.
“While 8,000 passengers fly out of Kolkata on an average, there were around 11,000 fliers on Sunday, thanks to the pujas” said an Airports Authority of India (AAI) official. As pressure at the security holds increased, most passengers had to wait in long queues.
While it barely takes 15 minutes on ordinary days, it took almost 25 to 35 minutes to reach the aircraft from the check-in counter on Sunday. “It is surprising how a 40% growth can affect flight schedules in the city. How will they cope up with the increased flights and passengers in the future?” wondered Naresh Sharma, a regular flier.
Airlines said that as the CISF was not aware of the passenger count in advance, they were not prepared to handle it. “But they need at least 100-150 jawans more to handle passengers on a normal day,” said Anup Choudhury, chairman, Airlines’ Organisation Committee.
06/10/08 Times of India

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Categories: Airports Oct 2008