Trauma at T3: Why is Delhi airport facing overcrowding leading to flight delays?

It’s a nightmare at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport. The queues are serpentine, there are delays in security checks and boarding. It’s complete chaos at Terminal 3 over the past few days, with some passengers even missing their flights. The situation is so bad that Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia had to intervene.

What’s happening at Delhi airport’s Terminal 3?

December is peak travel time, as everyone takes end-of-the-year breaks. For weeks,  passengers have been complaining about long queues at check-in and security counters.

Even entering the airport is a task and the wait time at immigration seems endless. Social media is flooded with visuals of flyers sharing their ordeal, many saying it feels like “hell”.

It took journalist Nirmal Gosh three hours to clear security. “Utter chaos at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International #Airport #India with fights breaking out,” he wrote on Twitter.

Utter chaos at New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International #Airport #India with fights breaking out. 3 hrs from curbside to clearing security. pic.twitter.com/wNVo8fOQTb

— Nirmal Ghosh (@karmanomad) December 10, 2022

“Coming to Delhi airport is no less than an self inflicted agony and a harassment,” another passenger complained, adding that missing flights have become common.

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Daily affair at IGI T3
Coming to Delhi airport is no less than an self inflicted agony and a harassment
No support, planning and action by cisf
missing ✈️, fighting, long standing queues, no battery cars #hopelessT3 #Delhiaiport @JM_Scindia @MoCA_India @DelhiAirport @CISFHQrs pic.twitter.com/seTTmV3NDk

— Goddess $ (@lovably_wicked) December 10, 2022

Another passenger likened the airport to a fish market and complained about the staff.

Delhi airport is just crazy......it resembles fish market, Serpentine queue at every level n non cooperating Staff of @airvistara
Inspite of reaching one n half hour early they did not let me board the flight pic.twitter.com/9LIHTurUvY

— Ashu Tomar 🇮🇳 (@ashutomarbhan) December 10, 2022

Also read: Delhi, Bengaluru, Varanasi airports allow entry of passengers using facial recognition tech, 4 more to follow

Why is there such chaos?

The Delhi airport, which is one of the busiest airports in the country, has three terminals. It manages over 500 domestic and 250 international flights. Terminal 3, which is at the centre of the commotion, handles over 1.9 - 1.95 lakh passengers on daily basis.

Airport authorities have pinned the blame on less manpower, especially the crunch in security staff. There are few counters and they are unable to handle the rise in the number of flyers this holiday season, according to a report in The Indian Express. After two years of restricted travel because of the pandemic, there is an increase in the number of passengers, leading to overcrowding.

It does not help that the Delhi International Airport, which has not yet crossed the pre-COVID numbers, is undergoing expansion. Hence all international and domestic flights, are operating from Terminal 3. Even though authorities have allowed arrivals at Terminal 1, the full expansion is still under process.

According to moneycontrol.com, the expansion project was only 73.2 per cent complete until September. Once revamped, the airport will be able to manage an estimated 100 million passengers annually from 66 million earlier.

Currently, an average of 2,790 flights take off every day, carrying 406,112 passengers. In December 2019, over 3,061 flights departed from the airport with over 418,722 passengers. Now more passengers are travelling on a single flight, leading to congestion, the report says.

Also read: Terminal Trouble: The two-hour chaos that brought Mumbai International Airport to a crawl

What is the government saying?

As the chaos continued, Jyotiraditya Scindia visited the airport to inspect the situation. While speaking to CNN-News18, he said, “We have studied and taken a summary of bottlenecks; CISF will provide an adequate amount of staff, there will be no compromise on it.”

#Exclusive | Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia (@JM_Scindia) speaks to CNN-News18 on #Delhi's T3 rush

'We've studied & taken a summary of bottlenecks; CISF will provide adequate amount of staff, there will be no compromise on it', he says#DelhiAirport | @_pallavighosh pic.twitter.com/1DJ3YWXJng

— News18 (@CNNnews18) December 12, 2022

Scindia said that they have taken “necessary steps to decongest the areas” and have reduced the flight numbers during peak hours. He added, “At the security checkpoint, we have two suggestions for airports. We should increase the capacity of trolly (hand baggage) and increase the number of personnel.”

Aviation Minister @JM_Scindia visits @DelhiAirport's T3

Minister can be seen assessing the situation with Aviation Secretary Rajiv Bansal

Minister has directed Airport officials & CISF to resolve the overcrowding issues ASAP pic.twitter.com/1BnKMq4KoT

— Daanish Anand (@Daanish_Anand) December 12, 2022

He stressed the use of DigiYatra, the facial recognition technology-based system recently launched at airports, saying that it would “facilitate some ease”.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Civil Aviation took cognizance of the mismanagement and called for a high-level meeting, which was attended by the airport officials, the Airport Authority of India (AAI), and Immigration and Covid testing lab companies.

The Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) has come up with a four-point action plan to solve the urgent problems at the airport. It said that they are “working constantly to cope with the demand which includes deployment of additional systems and manpower”. Airport authorities have deployed additional people to guide passengers and shifted an “additional X-Ray machine.” There were 14 X-ray screening machines at the airport and two more have been added, reports India Today.

An Automatic Tray Retrieval System (ATRS) to categorise items in the tray as Red or Green has been implemented. Gate 1A and Gate 8B, the two entry points, have also been converted for passenger use. The flights at the airport are also re-distributed with Terminal 3 being reduced to divert again to Terminals 1 and 2 whenever possible, according to the report.

“Additional manpower requirements will also have to be addressed by all stakeholders, including CISF and Immigration, to further improve the situation,” DIAL said.

With inputs from agencies

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