Chennai: Passengers arriving at Chennai’s new airport terminal were surprised that they could walk out of the complex in less than 15 minutes from the time their aircraft landed. Coming out early, some of them had to wait 20-25 minutes to be picked up .
It just took eight minutes for the first passenger arriving from Delhi to come out of the terminal. “This short time was next to impossible at the old terminal,” said Sudhakar, a businessman, who is a frequent traveller between Chennai and Delhi. “I hope they will be able to sustain this over a long run,” he said.
On the second day of the new terminal’s soft launch, a SpiceJet flight with over 100 passengers touched down at 1245 hrs, and the first passenger with just a shoulder bag walked out of the terminal at 1253 hours. In the old terminal, aircraft are parked near the runway with buses ferrying passengers to the terminal. It takes more than twenty-five minutes to come out of the terminal and if there is baggage, it takes more time.
22/03/13 TE Raja Simhan/Business Line
