Less time for the baggage reclaim at the Chennai airport
Posted on: 22/Aug/2019 10:00:53 AM
If you ask any passenger at the Chennai airport then he or she would say how tough and nightmarish it has been to reclaim their baggage.
It is worthy to mention here that for many years the baggage reclaim process have been an issue for the passengers at the Chennai airport and the wait was between 45 minutes to hour also. It must be noted that sometimes the bags from multiple flights were loaded on to a single belt. Point is if the ‘Multi Apron Ramp System’ of the AAI or Airport Authority of India comes into existence then atleast the domestic passengers would get some relief from the long wait in reclaiming their baggage.
The arrival of the baggage gets delayed because of the fact that the aircraft is parked at remote bay far away from the terminal. To reach the terminal the baggage takes longer time. It is now said that when the new system is implemented then some aircraft might get parking space close to the terminal and baggage might get to the conveyor belt faster. The airport officials spoke about how they were trying to increase the parking space on the airside. It is important to note that in the space where three ‘code E’ aircraft (like Boeing 777 and Boeing 787 with a capacity of 400 to 450) are parked, 5 ‘code C’ aircraft like (A320 with a seating capacity of 150-200) could be parked.
It was later mentioned by an official that they have redrawn some markings in few bays and to get the approval the plan would be sent to the Director General of Civil Aviation. He then hinted that domestic sector would be highly benefited as nearly 90% of flights are ‘code C’ aircrafts. He explained about how due to lack of space no new additional bays are available for huge aircraft arriving in the international sector. Important point to be noted is earlier AAI extended the length of the conveyor belt to accommodate more bags but the complaints from the passengers still keep coming.
The officials expressed their thoughts about the construction of the new terminal and said once it is built then the terminal would have more bays and more conveyor belts also. They revealed that the issue of delayed baggage arrivals would not occur again. It is well known that AAI founded in 1995 is a statutory body involved in creating, upgrading, maintaining and managing civil aviation infrastructure in India.
