Passengers missing flights at IGI T3, officials blame silence zones

NEW DELHI: A last-minute hunt for ‘missing’ outbound international passengers at IGI Airport’s sprawling Terminal 3 has become common these days. Delhi International Airport Pvt Ltd ( DIAL) some months back made T3 an announcement-free zone in line with most global airports. Now, airlines operating overseas flights are unable to make frantic last and final boarding calls for passengers who are roaming about in T3’s massive duty free area.

Things have come to such a pass that Air India has formed a committee of its senior officials to tackle this issue. Last month, one of its UK-bound flights had to come back after take off to return the checked-in baggage of a passenger who missed the flight due to strolling in the duty free area and reporting late for boarding.

“We have suspended a number of staffers for that lapse. We investigated that episode and found that most airlines are facing the same problem. T3’s duty free area is announcement-free and no airline can make final boarding calls for them there in case they do not report for boarding on time. The only announcements airlines can make are near their individual boarding gate,” said a senior AI official.

The airline’s inquiry into the Delhi-Birmingham bag-minus-flyer episode has thrown up some interesting facts. “Airlines wait for some time for such passengers to show up who unmindful of boarding time stroll at the duty free area. Then their baggage has to be offloaded for aircraft, a process that delays flights by over 45 minutes. As many as seven to eight passengers can be missing for long-haul flights on widebody aircraft,” said the official.

A number of airlines confirmed AI’s experience. “All airlines tell specifically passengers that they must report to check-in gate by a certain time. In fact, many circle this info on their boarding cards given at time of check-in. But there are a substantial number of first time or infrequent flyers who do not heed this advice and take their sweet time at T3’s shopping area. We have been speaking to DIAL on this issue but so far there has been no progress on this front,” an official of a leading international airline said.

“Most reputed airports worldwide follow a silent airport concept. The silent airport concept at IGIA was worked out together with all the Airlines. The airlines operating committee have fully supported (it). The argument that airlines are unable to announce for the late boarding passengers is misleading as we do make an exception and allow an announcement for a missing passenger.” a DIAL statement said, A senior airline official said India is ‘maturing’ as an aviation market. “There is substantial number of first time flyers who need to be told what to do. Announcements used to make them hurry up to boarding gates. So silence zones work better in mature markets than India,” the official said.