Air passenger traffic back to normal

Passengers are back on board although they are facing delays of over 15 to 20 minutes due to the stringent security measures across airports in the country.

In the backdrop of foiled terror attack at British Airways and the red alert during Independence Day celebrations, airlines have witnessed 15 to 20 per cent decline in passenger traffic, before limping back to near normalcy.

"There were frantic cancellations during the terror week. Average decline was around 15 to 20 per cent. Thanks to the resilience of Indian passengers, now airlines are flying with a decent load factor," said Riji Philip of Cosmo Travels, an international travel agency.

Cathay Pacific Country Manager (India, Nepal and Bangladesh) Rupert Bray said: "Passengers are back on board shrugging off terror threats though there are missing connections due to delays. However, airlines are facing trouble in providing additional manpower for physical security measures."

Lufthansa boss in India Werner Heesen says that it has been business as usual. "This being peak traffic we have fortunately not seen any cancellations at all for Europe and the US. There are many fairs and conferences which are on and people are going" adds Heesen.

Travel agencies also point out there wkas no sharp fall at all. Karan Anand, Director, Cox and Kings, said: "There was no impact in the travel during terror threat. Most of the travellers during the period was students and business travellers. Both of these group cannot cancel their trip."

And state owned Air-India company secretary S Venkat, there was no significant decline in the international traffic even though the punctuality and scheduled integrity were affected due to tighter security checks.

Of course tight security measures have meant delays in flights. CISF Deputy Commandant Arun Singh said: "Passengers are also co-operating with the new tight security controls. "We are not allowing any liquids including tooth paste, jel, water or shampoo. We have also beefed up security force in association with local police."

Due to 100 per cent manual check of baggage's even after X-Ray machine inspection, every flights from the country is delayed by average 15 to 20 minutes, said airport sources.

Security force deployed at airports are opening every single baggage physically and has restricted number of hand baggage carried by passengers. Senior executives from Air-India and Cathay Pacific confirmed the delay in flight in the wake of tight security measures and additional investment in this regard.

"We need to deploy additional manpower at airports for secondary frisking. Air-India has installed bio-medical identification machine to profile passengers. All these measures are translating to additional cost," an Air-India spokesperson said.