Allow me to express the heartfelt appreciation of countless air passengers for your personal visit to witness the challenging experiences faced by the public at Delhi airport over the past year. We sincerely anticipate a significant overhaul of passenger handling procedures at the airport in the near future.
As a senior citizen who regularly travels to South India via Chennai for medical reasons, I wish to draw your attention to the severe difficulties encountered by transit passengers, particularly senior citizens and mothers, at transit airports. Improving transit arrangements, considering the extended travel times endured by transit passengers, could be a substantial contribution to the aviation sector this year. The following areas require immediate attention:
1. Re-routing travelers from the northeast to south/western India through Kolkata: Previously, passengers from northeast India traveled via Kolkata to reach South India, including Chennai and Mumbai. This route served a substantial number of patients seeking medical care, college students, and defense personnel. Despite the initial journey to Dibrugarh taking 4-5 hours by road, it was a more convenient option. Direct flights from Dibrugarh to Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai, and Hyderabad via Kolkata provided smoother transitions and reduced waiting times at security. Unfortunately, these flights have been canceled, redirecting passengers to Delhi and causing considerable chaos. Reinstating the Kolkata transit route for travelers from the northeast would alleviate hardships at both airports and ease the burden on Delhi’s security officials.
2. Establishing Transit Security Check (TSC) Counters for a streamlined process: Transit passengers often face repeated hassles during the second security check at the transit airport. The current process, involving long queues, is time-consuming and stressful for senior citizens and patients. After undergoing a comprehensive security check at the departure airport, subjecting transit passengers to another rigorous round of security checks at the transit airport seems redundant. To address this, creating separate Transit Security Check (TSC) Counters and directing transit passengers through a Sanitized Passage, ensuring no interaction with other passengers, would be beneficial. Since transit passengers would arrive directly from the aircraft to the TSC counters, their security check could be expedited, sparing them from unnecessary scrutiny of their hand luggage, already cleared by the CISF at the departure airport.
Implementing these reforms would put an end to the current practice of treating transit passengers, arriving directly from a flight, in the same manner as passengers boarding their first flight — a situation where unequals are treated as equals.
While acknowledging the necessity of airport security checks, the undue harshness and harassment faced by innocent individuals, despite having paid security check fees, are regrettable. These proposed reforms would likely be welcomed by CISF personnel, who diligently perform their challenging duties around the clock.
We sincerely hope that these changes will contribute to a more relaxed experience for passengers arriving at Delhi airport, the nation’s largest airport.