For years now, baggage reclaim at the Chennai airport has been a nightmare. The wait could be anywhere between 45 minutes to an hour, and bags from multiple flights are sometimes loaded on to a single belt.
There may be temporary relief soon for at least domestic passengers, as the Airports Authority of India (AAI) plans to implement the “Multi Apron Ramp System”.
In many cases, arrival of baggage gets delayed because an aircraft is parked at a remote bay, far from the terminal. It therefore takes time for the baggage to reach the terminal. If the new system is implemented, some aircraft can get parking space close to the terminal, and the baggage may get to the conveyor belt quicker.
Increasing parking space
Officials said they were trying to increase the parking space on the airside. So in the space where three ‘code E’ aircraft (like Boeing 777 and Boeing 787, with a capacity of about 400-450) are parked, five ‘code C’ aircraft (such as A320, having a seating capacity of about 150-200) can be parked.
“We have redrawn some markings in a few bays. Now we will send the plan for approval from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation. It will greatly help in the domestic sector, as nearly 90% of flights are ‘code C’ aircraft,” an official said. But due to space constraint, no new additional bays are available for huge aircraft arriving in the international sector.
Earlier, AAI also extended the length of the conveyor belt to accommodate more bags, but that hasn’t been of much use as the complaints from passengers still keep coming in.
But officials said, once the new terminal is built, they will have more bays and more conveyor belts too and such issues of delayed baggage arrivals may not occur.
