Facing heat for heavy rush at Delhi airport’s Terminal 3, the authorities have put in a place an action plan to reduce flights during morning peak hours. They are making efforts to move some flights from Terminal 3 to Terminal 1 and 2 to address the congestion, news agency PTI reported on Monday.
As per the new action plan, the number of flights during 5 am to 9 am will be reduced and it will also be explored to move some flights to T1 and T2 or to non-peak hours at T3. Â
The airport authorities will post real-time updates on waiting time on social media and a command centre will be set up to monitor crowding at the gates on a real-time basis. Also, crowd managers and usherers will guide travellers at the terminal.Â
Airlines will be notified about the crowd numbers so that check-in points can be made congestion-free, the officials told PTI. Also, the authorities will put in place digital display boards showing waiting time at each entry gate and at least one waiting time board at the terminal checkpoint.
Earlier in the day, Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia made a surprise visit to Terminal 3 of Delhi International Airport to review the situation as passengers complain of crowding.
The minister said last week he conducted a meeting where all the stakeholders were present. He said the aviation industry was suffering massively due to Covid restrictions. “Because of the recovery from this period, there is a lot of congestion at the airports,” Scindia said.
The minister’s visit comes on the back of a flurry of complaints on social media about the serpentine queues at the airport. Some frequent travellers said that they had been facing long delays at security checks due to heavy rush. Â
Tennis player Ria Bhatia in a tweet on December 9 wrote: “Been here from last 30 minutes and still not halfway through the security  check line on T3,
@DelhiAirport. What is going on?”
Author and commentator Brahma Chellaney said that the Delhi Airport was becoming one of the world’s most disorganized and frustrating airports for international travel, with very long lines before immigration and security. “Politicians and senior bureaucrats don’t see the nightly scenes of chaos as they use VIP facilities,” he said in a tweet last week.
The Delhi Airport has three terminals – T1, T2, and T3. Terminal 1 is used for domestic flights of low-cost airlines while Terminal 2 handles domestic flights and has been under refurbishment works recently, so the facility is quite new. Terminal 3 is one of the biggest terminals in the world and all international flights operate from this terminal
