How to decongest Indian airports? Five aviation experts weigh in

All passengers coming from "at-risk" countries have to compulsorily take RT-PCR test. (Image credit: Photo tweeted by @hvgoenka)

The emergence of a new variant of the coronavirus, Omicron, has once again raised concerns among governments over international travel.

The Indian government, in order to curb the spread of the virus, has come out with guidelines for the entry of international passengers from countries that have detected the Omicron variant.

All travellers from “at-risk” countries must take an RT-PCR test on arrival in India. Such travellers will be required to wait for two to three hours for their test results at the airport of arrival before leaving or taking a connecting flight.

However, the new regulations have resulted in congestion and crowd management issues at many international airports in India.

Civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia held a meeting on December 7 to discuss better crowd management at airports after photos of an overcrowded New Delhi airport went viral on social media, raising concerns over Covid-19 protocols being broken.

Experts told Moneycontrol that airports can adopt various crowd management strategies like managing flight slots, creating separate areas for testing international tourists, and increasing deployment of staff at airports to avoid congestion.

“The government should start considering Covid-19 tests prior to landing for international passengers in order to avoid long transit times for passengers,” said Lokesh Sharam, a senior aviation and defence analyst.

Redeploy staff

He added that airports can consider setting up areas away from the main terminal building to carry out the mandatory Covid-19 tests.

Ameya Joshi, founder of aviation analysis website Network Thoughts, said it is important to look for ways to increase the deployment of personnel temporarily at airports especially ground handling staff, security personnel, and customer handling personnel.

“Considering that not all international airports are getting flights right now, there should be scope to re-depute a few personnel from other airports to Delhi/Mumbai or other places where there is congestion due to increased precautions being taken,” Joshi said.

Sanat Kaul, chairman of the International Foundation for Aviation, Aerospace and Drones, suggested that airports should start common-use gate assignment instead of exclusive use of gates by airlines.

A senior aviation analyst from Goldman Sachs said strategies like allowing only carry-on luggage for short-haul flights should be adopted to make it easier for passengers.

“Checking in at gate-holding areas for high-density/shuttle operations where passengers have only carry-on luggage – this allows travellers to bypass the otherwise busy public concourse check-in counters,” he said.

The ministry has asked airlines to reschedule and stagger their flights to reduce congestion. It was also suggested that some peak-hour flights at smaller airports be moved to leaner hours.

People have also raised concerns about the safety of passengers confined at airports. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, founder of Biocon Ltd., tweeted earlier that the extended waiting time for travellers at airports could lead to people getting infected.

“Even if you did not have the infection, you are likely to acquire it at the airport!” she said on Twitter.

Airports have said that delays in the implementation of the government’s new guidelines caused some overcrowding at airports initially and they have now created protocols to ensure these situations are not repeated.

Rating company ICRA said the share of international traffic at Indian airports is very low at the moment and so congestion at airports should not be a concern now that all protocols are in place.

Additional steps

Several airports have announced additional measures to reduce the waiting time for passengers. Bengaluru airport said earlier this week it added 50 machines to scale up its testing capacity and has dedicated counters for senior citizens, passengers with reduced mobility and mothers with infants.

Delhi airport said it has installed 120 rapid PCR test machines and provided 20 dedicated counters for passengers who have pre-booked their tests online.

Meanwhile, the government said it is strengthening its Air Suvidha portal, where all India-bound passengers must declare their current health status prior to boarding along with supporting documents. It said the portal allows for segregation of passengers from “at-risk” countries.

The Air Suvidha portal assisted 251,210 passengers from December 1 to December 5, the civil aviation ministry said on December 7.