First, the good news. India’s domestic air traffic during Jan-Oct 2017 grew at a whopping 16.6 per cent, making it one of the fastest-growing domestic markets in the world. International traffic has been growing steadily at around 9.8 per cent. At this rate, India has the potential to become the third-largest aviation market behind the US and China.
Now, the not-so-good news. Almost all our top airports are choked during peak hours or are about to be soon. The rising congestion at airports often leads to frayed tempers and general unpleasantness.
The CISF, providing security at 59 leading airports of the country, has a tough balancing act to perform. There is pressure to expedite the security process without compromising on security. On the other hand, the sophistication and determination of the modern day criminal is rising. There have been terror attacks in several European airports in the last two years. The CISF has been successful in keeping Indian airports incident free. One terror attack can push the fast-growing Indian aviation and tourism industries back by several years. All these enhance the need to bring in the latest technologies and best practices to enhance the “ease of doing air travel”.
Recent months have seen a tremendous improvement in airport security processes. One of the most popular has been the elimination of hand baggage tags. After the installation of HD cameras and other infrastructure, the tags are gone in 29 airports and are likely to go in another 14. This may extend to all airports. Consequently, cross-checking of boarding passes and security stamps at the boarding gates of the said 29 airports have also been done away with.
The Automated Tray Retrieval System (ATRS) being tried at Delhi and Bengaluru airports can be a game-changer. A suspicious bag is automatically segregated by the screener for physical checking on a different roller, out of reach of the passenger. As a vast majority of air travellers are corporate executives travelling with one piece of hand baggage. India’s first express security check facility for such passengers has been implemented at Hyderabad airport’s domestic terminal. Efforts are on to implement this system at all major airports.
Passengers often lose personal belongings at airports due to negligence or theft. In 2016, missing items worth over Rs 38 crore were located by the CISF and shared on its website. If a lost item is reported within one hour of loss, the CISF offers immediate search assistance by way of CCTV analysis. As for differently-abled passengers, during security checks, visual inspection and hand-held explosive trace detector (ETD) will be used and only in rare cases will CISF request the passenger to remove their prosthetics. This is a positive development.
The Montreal-headquartered Airport Council International (ACI) runs an Airport Service Quality (ASQ) rating programme across 200 airports in over 50 countries. In 2016, the security-related ASQ ratings at six Indian metros fared better than Washington, Heathrow, Paris, Dubai, Los Angeles and Frankfurt airports , which is a matter of pride.
20/01/18 Amber Dubey, Vinod Narasimhamurthy/Indian Express
To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline
Now, the not-so-good news. Almost all our top airports are choked during peak hours or are about to be soon. The rising congestion at airports often leads to frayed tempers and general unpleasantness.
The CISF, providing security at 59 leading airports of the country, has a tough balancing act to perform. There is pressure to expedite the security process without compromising on security. On the other hand, the sophistication and determination of the modern day criminal is rising. There have been terror attacks in several European airports in the last two years. The CISF has been successful in keeping Indian airports incident free. One terror attack can push the fast-growing Indian aviation and tourism industries back by several years. All these enhance the need to bring in the latest technologies and best practices to enhance the “ease of doing air travel”.
Recent months have seen a tremendous improvement in airport security processes. One of the most popular has been the elimination of hand baggage tags. After the installation of HD cameras and other infrastructure, the tags are gone in 29 airports and are likely to go in another 14. This may extend to all airports. Consequently, cross-checking of boarding passes and security stamps at the boarding gates of the said 29 airports have also been done away with.
The Automated Tray Retrieval System (ATRS) being tried at Delhi and Bengaluru airports can be a game-changer. A suspicious bag is automatically segregated by the screener for physical checking on a different roller, out of reach of the passenger. As a vast majority of air travellers are corporate executives travelling with one piece of hand baggage. India’s first express security check facility for such passengers has been implemented at Hyderabad airport’s domestic terminal. Efforts are on to implement this system at all major airports.
Passengers often lose personal belongings at airports due to negligence or theft. In 2016, missing items worth over Rs 38 crore were located by the CISF and shared on its website. If a lost item is reported within one hour of loss, the CISF offers immediate search assistance by way of CCTV analysis. As for differently-abled passengers, during security checks, visual inspection and hand-held explosive trace detector (ETD) will be used and only in rare cases will CISF request the passenger to remove their prosthetics. This is a positive development.
The Montreal-headquartered Airport Council International (ACI) runs an Airport Service Quality (ASQ) rating programme across 200 airports in over 50 countries. In 2016, the security-related ASQ ratings at six Indian metros fared better than Washington, Heathrow, Paris, Dubai, Los Angeles and Frankfurt airports , which is a matter of pride.
20/01/18 Amber Dubey, Vinod Narasimhamurthy/Indian Express
0 comments:
Post a Comment