Delhi hurdle for foreign fliers

Calcutta: Passengers taking Air India’s connecting flights from Delhi to Calcutta after flying in from New York and London have been arriving in the city hours late and often without their luggage.
The airline blames the lack of infrastructure at the newly commissioned terminal 3 (T3) of Delhi airport for the problems while the airport authorities accuse Air India for not deploying enough employees.
Air India operates daily New York-Delhi-Calcutta and London-Delhi-Calcutta flights. On reaching Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi, passengers have to change aircraft to fly to Calcutta.
“The flights have been arriving three to four hours behind schedule for the past four to five days. Also, we have been receiving complaints from several passengers about their luggage not being loaded on the Delhi-Calcutta flight,” an official at Calcutta airport said on Friday.
The New York-Delhi-Calcutta flight arrived at 1.30am on Friday, nearly three hours behind schedule. The London-Delhi-Calcutta flight arrived at 5.25pm on Friday instead of 3.45pm.
“The scale of operations at T3 has gone up suddenly with 11 domestic flights operating from it. There seems to be shortage of manpower,” said an Air India official in Delhi.
The new software for segregation of baggage is creating confusion among airport employees and causing bags to be loaded on wrong flights, he added.
Air India is the first airline that moved to T3 for integrated international and domestic operations.
06/11/10 The Telegraph

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Categories: Airports Nov 2010, Foreign Nov 2010