Your bag at Indian airports might arrive in 10 mins. Here’s how

Prolonged wait time at the baggage conveyor belt to get the luggage is one of the most tiresome aspects of air travel.

Due to the delays in baggage deliveries at airports in India, the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), the security wing of the Civil Aviation Ministry, has issued a stern warning to the top seven airlines, asking them to streamline their baggage handling procedures or face strict action.

Let’s take a closer look.

The warning letter

In a letter dated 16 February, the BCAS pointed out errors by top airlines in obeying rules.

According to ANI, the new regulations by the BCAS say, “The airlines are required to ensure the delivery of passengers’ baggage within a timeframe of 10 to 30 minutes as per the Service Quality Requirements of Operatiion, Management and Delivery Agreement (OMDA).”

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The authority has reportedly given 10 days to implement the new regulations, with a target date of 26 February 2024. Strict action will be taken against those who will fail to comply with orders.

The warning letter has been sent to IndiGo, Air India, SpiceJet, Akasa, Air India Express Connect, Vistara, and Air India Express.

“The airlines have been given final warning in the form of the letter written on Friday. If an airline still continues to delay the process of delivering the baggage, the ministry will be forced to take action against it,” Hindustan Times quoted an official as saying.

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Notably, the move comes after the Civil Aviation security wing studied the time taken by airlines to clear the passengers from the arrival hails of six major airports, including Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Chennai, since January this year.

“The move to ensure baggage delivery on time, will not only clear the passengers faster, making space for the others arriving into the hall, but will also help in the security of the airport,” a government official said, as per the report.

“Since the beginning of the review exercise, the performance of all airlines is being monitored on a weekly basis, which has improved but are not as per the mandates, “ HT quoted the official as saying. “However, BCAS has directed the airlines to ensure that the mandated levels are achieved in all airports where they fly.”

According to News18, the Aviation Ministry’s BCAS also initiated the monitoring exercise at the beginning of this year, ensuring no passengers have to deal with baggage delivery on belts.

Also read: What is skiplagging, the new air travel hack that airlines hate?

Airport congestion at airports

From Mumbai to Delhi airports, congestion at airports has been a major concern in India in the past year.

To address the problem, the government has introduced various measures, especially after December 2022, when Delhi and Mumbai airports witnessed a sudden spike in passenger footfall, impacting many flyers who missed their flights.

In June 2023, the Delhi airport launched the Self-Baggage Drope (SBD) facility at Terminal 3 of the airport, as per the Economic Times. The passenger-friendly initiative aimed to streamline the baggage drop-off process, reduce the wait time for passengers by approximately 15-20 minutes and further enhance the overall airport experience.

Civil Aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia has been working on strategic improvements, such as an increase in departure gates, the introduction of new technologies for faster security clearance, Digi Yatra, increase in manpower at airports. The minister even removed a few lounges and commercial areas at the airports to create space for passenger movements. “Space allocations for commercial activities are planned on the principle of ‘to be on the way’ and ‘not in the way’ to ensure smooth and natural flow of passengers,” he said in December last year, as per HT.

The situation at other airports around the world

At Dubai International (DXB) departure passport control, the average waiting time was less than five minutes for over 96 per cent passengers in 2022, according to Khaleej Times. For arrivals, the average waiting time at passport control queues was less than 13 minutes for over 95 per cent of passengers.

DXB’s baggage handling system processed a total of 62.2 million bags in 2022, “with a success rate of 99.8 per cent”. “In terms of baggage delivery on arrival, 92 per cent of all baggage was delivered within 45 minutes to our customers. The baggage volume in 2022 represents 86.2 per cent of the 2019 baggage volume at DXB,” the airport operator said.

According to PlanetWare, the average wait time across all US airports is about 10 minutes, and on average, 81 per cent of all American flights have been reported on time since 2014.

Passengers visiting airports in Connecticut (2.8 minutes) and Mississippi (3.4 minutes) can expect little to no wait time, the report said. On the other hand, the John F Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in New York City has an average security wait time of around 23 minutes and a passport control wait time of about 25 minutes, as per the Readers Digest article published in August 2023.

Initiatives for seamless travel

According to a report by Nikkei Asia, Japan is setting up electronic terminals at country airports to process both immigration and customs information. The move aims to shorten the time needed to enter the country to as little as one minute.

The programme will begin later this year at Haneda Airport in Tokyo and Kansai International Airport in Osaka.

Notably, the development comes at a time when the Asian country is witnessing a rise in number of foreign tourists after it lifted the COVID-19 travel restrictions.

As the technology grows in popularity, biometric passport clearance is a growing trend at most airports.

The biometric “Smart Gates” tunnels, which employ facial recognition to authenticate travellers’ IDs in as little as five seconds, were launched in 2018 at Dubai International Airport.

As the number of air travellers is projected to keep growing globally,  Singapore also announced plans to introduce automated immigration clearance starting this year, which will allow passengers to depart the city-state without passports. Biometric technology, along with facial recognition software, is already in use to some extent in Changi Airport at automated lanes at immigration checkpoints, according to CNN. But the upcoming changes will “reduce the need for passengers to repeatedly present their travel documents at touch points and allow for more seamless and convenient processing.”

Facial recognition technology is already in use in some capacity at airports around the world, including those at Hong Kong International Airport, Tokyo Narita, Tokyo Haneda, Indira Gandhi International in Delhi, London Heathrow, and Paris Charles de Gaulle.

According to Euro News, in October last year, Finland became the first country to test digital travel documents. The country launched the trial in partnership with Finnair, the Finnish police, and airport operator Finavia.

Earlier this year, the UK Home Office also revealed plans to equip airports with new, high-tech e-gates that feature advanced facial recognition technology. The new e-gates will go through trials later this year.

The government anticipates that this new technology will raise Britain’s border to the level of other developed countries, including Dubai, which employ facial recognition for 50 different nationalities.

The aim, according to UK Border Force director-general Phil Douglas, is to establish an “intelligent border” that makes use of “much more frictionless facial recognition than we currently do.”

With inputs from agencies