Festive rush, slow security check have fliers fuming

KOLKATA: Passengers at Kolkata airport have been complaining of being stuck in long queues at the security-check area since the start of last week. This delay, they said, has forced several fliers to report late for boarding and has led to frequent tiffs with fellow passengers, airline officials and security personnel. The reason behind the problem is a combination of factors: a sudden spurt of passengers in the festive season, heightened frisking and bunching of flights owing to rescheduling and cancellations because of weather conditions in the morning.

On December 15, flier Deepak Agarwal tweeted to civil aviation minister Suresh Prabhu and tagged Kolkata airport’s Twitter handle about being stuck in a queue at 7.42pm. “Flying from CCU airport. 40mins queue in security check. Seems unprepared for peak holiday season. Unacceptable level of service for international airport,” the tweet read.

Another passenger, Arindam Bhattacharjee, had tweeted at 7.13pm on December 11 about the shoddy situation at the airport. “One of the worst managed airports in the country. Period. People cutting into queues, inefficient airlines and security staff. Feels more like a railway station,” he had said.


The process of security check starts once the passenger has checked in and collected the boarding pass. The flier is then electronically screened. CISF personnel first check the ticket, boarding pass and identity cards. The flier’s belongings are then scanned separately. Finally, a passenger is body-screened manually by CISF personnel before being allowed to walk into the zone from where they can board the flight.

“The entire process should barely take a few minutes for normal passengers, but, at present, it is taking way longer. On Saturday, the checking process took us quite some time as the personnel insisted on us removing every jacket, sweater, shoe and socks. The body-frisking, too, took a lot of time,” said Souvick Chatterjee, who was headed to Bengaluru with his wife.

According to fliers and airline officials, the pressure had started mounting in terms of number of passengers since the start of last week. To add to the existing rush, sources at the airport said, the security personnel had recently failed a surprise drill conducted by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security of India (BCAS), following which a few personnel were warned. This made them more cautious and they now insist on thorough checks.

“In the recent operational audit conducted by the BCAS, the airport security personnel were pulled up for poor frisking. Those who were conducting the surprise test had asked some passengers to carry some dummy objects that are not allowed to pass through the security zone. But the personnel had possibly overlooked it. Since the issue was brought to notice, the CISF personnel have become more cautious and the process has slowed,” said an official.

CISF officials, however, refused to acknowledge this fact and said the long queues were the result of rescheduling and bunching of flights and the spurt of passengers in the festive season.

“The DGCA conduct such tests occasionally, but they are not connected to queues in the airport. The queues are getting longer mainly because of the festive rush of passengers and because of rescheduling and bunching of flights, which results in several passengers of different airlines queuing up at one go,” said a senior CISF official.

Kolkata airport director Atul Dikshit also blamed airline officials for not co-operating with security officials, which resulted in the long queues.

“The airline officials are not directing the passengers to security gates that are empty. There are a few gates clogged with passengers while others remain almost empty. The airline officials should co-ordinate with passengers and guide them to the right security gates. There are three different security gates with 12 x-ray machines and DFMD devices, which are enough to manage the traffic. The airlines should help the passengers and co-ordinate with the CISF,” Dikshit said.