Centre works to fix airport crowding as air travel soars

Plan to ease rush with more screening points, digitalized pre-queuing, and limited flights

-  Anu Sharma

The civil aviation ministry has crafted a three-step plan to tackle airport congestion, at a time the industry anticipates record demand during the summer months and after. The government is keen to prevent the kind of long queues and frayed nerves witnessed at major airports in December.

“The approach is to first have a higher number of screening points to ensure distribution of air passengers entering the terminal building. The second step is to implement a digitalized pre-queuing process; and finally, to limit the number of flights during peak demand hours," an official aware of the plans said.

The government is also keen on air tickets with digital codes that can be scanned at the airport entry to reduce queues. Meanwhile, aviation authorities are nudging their home ministry counterparts to increase the number of security personnel at the airports and expand infrastructure to reduce waiting time inside the terminal, the official cited above said on condition of anonymity.