Government plans to ease congestion at airports: Jyotiraditya Scindia

New Delhi: The government has chalked out a plan along with all stakeholders to ease congestion at country's airports, which have been witnessing heavy traffic in recent days, and the results will soon be visible, Civil Aviation Ministry Jyotiraditya Scindia said on Thursday.

Scindia also said in the Lok Sabha that the increase in traffic is due to the “resurgence of traffic” and also partly because of the “democratisation of civil aviation” and expansion of the network across the country.

“I have had a detailed meeting yesterday not only with airport operators but with the immigration, the CISF and others. I told them that we must have a plan for peak-hour departures and arrivals. Not on the basis of an airport's capabilities of take-off and landing. On the basis of our peak hour traffic, we can manage our departures and arrivals,” he said during the Question Hour.

Scindia said there is a great degree of volatility in India's airport's graph which has to be smoothen up -- very similar to the winter schedules being prepared by the airports to handle fog.

“I have requested the airport operators to do the peak hour planning. Today, that process is on. I am quite sure that we will be able to manage our airport traffic soon,” he said.

Referring to the US and Europe, where the resurgence of traffic was witnessed too, the minister said there was “mayhem” at the airports of the US and Europe where baggage were lost.

“Our airports have done yeoman job. That process is on. With the new planning, we will be able to smoothen up the process and I am very confident about that,” he said.

Scindia said civil aviation was one of the most affected sectors during the COVID-19 pandemic when all the planes were grounded.

Pre-Covid, he said, the highest number of passengers in India's history was 4.07 lakh on a single day in 2019 and the number was breached three days ago when 4.13 lakh passengers travelled by air on a single day.

“This speaks a lot about this government's, and the Prime Minister's priority -- the democratisation of civil aviation, increasing the breadth as well as depth in civil aviation,” he said.

This, he said, also brings up the issue of crowding at the airport.

“We have to understand the seasonability of civil aviation. The festive season is from October to February which is peak season. Then comes the normal season which is from March to May and then the lean season of monsoon which is from June to September,” he said.

Replying to another question, Scindia said he would look into the issue of senior citizens facing inconvenience while transiting through Indian airports en route their onward journey abroad.