Travel pain: Why airports are congested from Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad to Bengaluru

For thousands of air passengers, travel has become a nightmare in recent days because of absolute chaos at airports. Delhi and Mumbai International airports have emerged the worst pain points. At the Bengaluru airport, the pre-departure security check has become a big bottleneck. People have been complaining consistently of slow-moving serpentine queues at entry gates, baggage drop points and security checks. The situation forced civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia to visit the Delhi airport to take stock of the situation. Also read: Revenge Travel Rush Shoots Up Air Fares As December Holidays Kick In The Times of India’s Saurabh Sinha says there has been a revival in domestic air travel after Covid-19. “It crossed the psychological barrier of four lakh passengers in a day earlier this month. And since then, the number is increasing by 5,000 to 6,000 every day. On Sunday, the figure reached 4.3 lakh domestic passengers. If not an all-time high, the number is definitely the highest since Covid,” he says.The busiest airports are the worst affected. Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad are facing the maximum congestion. Here, airports were short on infrastructure even before Covid. The airports did not have the adequate capacity to handle the demand. In Delhi, Terminal-1 was undergoing expansion. Bengaluru will also get a second terminal soon. A new airport is planned in Navi Mumbai within three to four years. The bottlenecks are because of inadequate infrastructure.The congestion starts right from terminal entry. There's a shortage of CISF personnel. There’s staff crunch even at the check-in counter. Airlines had laid off people during COVID as there was low travel demand. Now, the demand has picked up and the airlines are trying to hire people but they are finding it difficult to hire the right people with the right talent pool.The worst bottleneck for domestic travelers is at security check points. The rule is that only one handbag is allowed with a maximum of one purse or a laptop. But the rule is not followed. People travel with two to three handbags. They have to take out all their personal electronic devices, chargers and mobile phones etc. There’s a mad scramble for plastic trays, which are not enough. There are fights at this point. Audio production: Prateek Kapoor