Chennai: Flyers continue to face immigration, baggage delays

CHENNAI: Immigration and baggage delays continue to affect passengers at the international terminal of Chennai airport. Passengers who arrive by international flights at night are able to come out of the terminal only after an hour or two after landing.
Shortage of staff at the immigration and bunching of arriving flights impact immigrtion process while presence of only one ground handling company to manage bags force passengers to wait longer at the conveyor belt.
After repeated complaints, Airports Authority of India (AAI) requested for around 30 additional staff which has eased the time taken to check passengers but often long queues continue to mar travel experience of people who arrive after 10hours in a flight.
M Govindarajan, president, Federation of Residents Welfare Associations of Tambaram Corporation, said, "I suffered delays at the immigration counter and at the baggage conveyor. There was a 45 minutes wait at the immigration. The bags came after nearly an hour."
Elangovan Sellappan, who recently returned from Singapore, said the IndiGo flight reached at 2pm but the bags were delayed by an hour. My bag's lock was missing. The zipper was open as if there was an attempt to steal. The handles too were damaged. The authorities should be more vigilant towards handling of the bags."
Govindarajan said in response to his complaint AAI has responded that based on the request from the AAI, the state has deputed 37 officials for immigration duty. "Since passenger traffic is increasing manifold, the airport director has once again written to the DGP requesting to depute another 130 officials for immigration duty.
AAI spokesperson said additional personnel have started joining. AAI has floated a tender for hiring more ground handling agencies.