Airlines told to speed up baggage delivery
civil aviation security regulator has asked airlines to deploy adequate manpower within 10 days to ensure passengers don't have to wait more than half an hour to collect their luggage. The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) wrote to airlines on Friday, directing them that the first bag should arrive at the carousel within 10 minutes of the aircraft shutting down the engine and the last bag no later than 30 minutes.
In January, BCAS monitored baggage arrival time of all airlines at six metro airports — Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Chennai — on a weekly basis and found they did not adhere to the standards set in the Operation, Management and Delivery Agreement. Contractual agreement was signed by Airports Authority of India with Delhi and Mumbai airports during their privatisation in 2006. It defines standards of service that the airports have to provide to passengers.
«The above monitoring is currently being done at six major airports, However, BCAS has directed the airlines to ensure that the mandated levels are achieved in all airports where they fly,» the regulator said in a statement.
As part of efforts to reduce congestion at major airports, the BCAS last week directed the Mumbai airport to reduce flights as the airport had allotted excessive slots, which led to aircraft hovering above the airport for as long as 60 minutes.
The regulator said any addition of flights be based on passenger-handling capacity at security checkpoints.
«There was lack of transparency on how capacity was
