Jaipur airport gets new swanky departure hall

JAIPUR: In a move to de-congest the Jaipur airport during rush hour, the Airport Authority of India (AAI), Jaipur has started a new departure hall in an area of 2,700 square metre. The new hall has eight check-in counters, extra washrooms and other passenger’s amenities.
AAI chairman Arvind Singh inaugurated the departure hall on Saturday.
However, various airlines are yet to open their counters due to technical glitches. According to sources, 3.9 million passengers had travelled from Jaipur airport from January to December 2019.
While speaking reporters, Singh said, “On the instructions of the Union government, the AAI started the process of privatizing six airports in the country. For this a memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has also been signed on Friday for the privatization of Lucknow, Ahmedabad and Mangaluru airports.”
However, AAI is awaiting the final approval for the privatization of other three airports, including Jaipur, Guwahati and Trivandrum.
On the new departure hall, director (AAI), Jaipur, Jaideep Singh Balhara, said, “We have got eight new check-in counters and the passengers would be able to go for boarding through escalators. New facilities for drinking water and washrooms have been added for the passengers in the new hall. The new hall has also been connected to the existing departure hall. It has also been connected to the boarding gate number 2 and 3 on the second floor.”
With the boarding gate attached to the new hall, passengers will also have the option of going directly to the flight.
Apart from airport director, all heads of departments, CISF commandant Y P Singh and representatives of airlines were also present at the launch event.
New check-in counters have been installed in the new departure hall without any connection with SITA software needed to issue boarding pass. Currently, no airlines have started its operations in the new departure hall. “We will start this in next couple of days,” said Jaideep Singh Balhara, director (AAI), Jaipur.