Centre boosts CISF personnel headcount to avoid congestion at airports

Steps up efforts to ensure smooth passenger flow during Christmas and New Year

The central government has taken multiple steps like increasing the number of CISF personnel, immigration counters and departure entry lanes to avoid congestion at the top Indian airports across the country, Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said on Friday.

In December of last year, passengers encountered extensive queues at major airports, including Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. Subsequently, the minister convened a meeting with the operators of these airports to address the issue.

The number of CISF personnel at the top 16 airports in India has increased by 21 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) to 24,733 in December this year, the minister said during a press conference on Friday. These 16 airports include Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Cochin, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Guwahati, Hyderabad and Patna.

He said that airports have been told to give adequate space to passenger processing and other support services first and only then allocate space for business establishments and commercial lounges.

When asked if there was any resistance from the retailers or the airport operators in reducing the commercial area at the airports, Scindia replied: "We did what we had to because our responsibility is towards the people of this country. It is my duty to fulfil that responsibility. The airports are primarily for passengers, and we - ministry, BCAS - have made this clear to the airports."

Noting that the airfares have dropped between 20-80 per cent between June 5 and December 14, the minister said there are certain routes where the demand is high.

"For example, the Delhi-Mumbai route, which is India's busiest. In such routes, the fares have increased by 20-25 per cent. If we observe any major spike in fares, the TMU informs the airline and it self-regulates and brings the fare under control. Currently, the fares are under control, keeping in mind the seasonal fluctuation," he noted. He, however, clarified that the Indian aviation sector is a deregulated sector about fares.

The tariff monitoring unit (TMU), which works under the DGCA, monitors fares on 60 routes in four categories: tickets purchased 31 days before departure, 14 days, seven days and immediate fares.

Scindia said India would be carrying about 200 million domestic passengers per annum by 2030. In 2019-20, India carried 141.2 million passengers per annum.

He said that about 70 per cent of grounded aircraft in India are powered by Pratt and Whitney (PW) engines and these groundings have affected the Indian aviation industry. He, however, noted that the number of active aircraft in India has also increased from 622 aircraft to 644 aircraft.

The deadline for the installation of full body scanners across all airports - which handle more than 10 million passengers per annum - is December 31 this year. The deadline for installation of CTX (computer tomography x-ray) machines is also December 31 this year. 

"There have been a certain number of provisioning issues. It is an international contract. We expect the first CTX machine to come to India in May across some airports. The Delhi airport will be the first one. On a monthly basis, we have been discussing the scheduling of these machines at various airports. So, rather than giving a single order for these machines, we will do it airport-wise," Zulfiqar Hasan, Director General, Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), stated.