Mumbai airport

The Government has directed all airports to make public announcements in local language first, followed by Hindi and English.

This decision has been taken by civil aviation minister Mr. Suresh Prabhu.

Officials said that the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has issued a directive to all aerodromes under its control to start making public announcements in the local language in addition to Hindi and English.

The civil aviation ministry has also sent out a communication to private airport operators regarding public announcements to be made in the local language.

The directions would not be applicable for silent airports, where public announcements are not made, they added.

In 2016, the AAI had issued a circular asking airports under its control to make public announcements in the local language followed by Hindi and English.

In another similar directive, Indian aviation watchdog Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) issued an advisory stating that airlines may consider using local language for in-flight announcements.

Announcements in local language would be in addition to the ones made in Hindi and English.

Plus, to enhance awareness about cultural heritage of India, pilots can make in-flight announcement about the important monument or site (such as the Taj Mahal, the Konark Temple, the Ajanta Ellora, the Statue of Unity etc.), which are enroute the flight.

To spare passengers from physical frisking at security checks, airports in India will install body scanners from 2019.

Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) will soon come out with technical specifications of these scanners and then airports can install the machines.

Although full body scanners are new to India, this technology is widely used abroad, especially in the US.

This is expected to speed up the security check process for the Indian airports lacking adequate infrastructure and restrict the escalating manpower costs to provide security at the terminals.

Passengers will also have better travel experience following the installation of ful-body scanners.

he full-body scanners to be used in all airports are called “millimetre wave” machines, which bounce electromagnetic waves off the traveller to provide an animated image where a suspicious item might be located.

Central Industrial Security force (CISF) which handles security at India Gandhi International Airport revealed that as per a trial in December 2016, the machine was not able to adapt to the Indian way of dressing and gave false alarms whenever a woman wearing a sari passed through it. The scanner also found it difficult to detect objects concealed in footwear.

Post these several trails were conducted after modifying several specifications.

According to BCAS Chief Kumar Rajesh Chandra, they will be issuing the specifications and regulations for active and passive millimeter wave body scanners by early next year. This is being done after the trial runs were conducted successfully.

The scanners will be customised so that they can penetrate layers of clothes, such as the chunnat (front fold) of a sari, lungi and pallus.

While the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) insists on using the full body scanners to protect the country from terror attacks, critics challenge the use of devices over privacy and health concerns.

TSA deployed the machines and now uses 793 full-body scanners at 157 airports in 2016.US airports have been using full-body scanners since May 2013.

Ambala is one of the 13 cities to be finalised for a domestic airport under UDAN III scheme of the ministry of civil aviation, which comes as a New Year’s gift for its residents.

A team from Airports Authority of India (AAI) has identified land in Barnala village, adjacent to the Indian Air Force station boundary of the Ambala Cantonment, for the airport.

The team had visited the site on Monday and submitted its report to officials.

Haryana’s health, sports and youth welfare minister Anil Vij said that the proposed airport will not only add to the growth of Ambala Cantonment and Ambala City but will also help in employment opportunities to local youth.

He also thanked the current government for adding Ambala to the list of 13 cities under for the Udan Scheme. Most of the formalities have been completed hence, he is certain that this airport project will become a reality.

The announcement has come at a time when the international airport at Chandigarh is gradually attracting more passengers.

The airport is just 40 km from Ambala. It is the third domestic airport sanctioned for Haryana. The ministry had already given the go-ahead for Karnal and Hisar airports.

In a bid to reduce time taken to enter and exit Chennai Airport and ease the congestion in front of the international and domestic terminals of the airport, the pick-up and drop points at both terminals will be changed from today.

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) will put in place a revised traffic pattern which will be in effect from 11 am, today.

What this means is that AAI will provide separate access to departure and arrival levels in both domestic and international terminals.

The airport, which now has only one entry and exit at present,  will have three entry points.

The vehicles in the departure level will have to drop passengers and exit the airport, and will not have access to parking facility both in domestic and international terminals.

However, for those picking up passengers from the airport, there is a separate pick-up lane earmarked for private vehicles and cab aggregator Ola.

The commercial vehicles will not have access to the pick-up lane; they have been slotted the parking lanes at the airport. Passengers will have to walk down to the parking lane to get access to the commercial vehicles.

Here is a detailed summary of the changes:

• Vehicles coming to drop passengers at the domestic terminal, as of now, take a right turn to the ramp. However, Such vehicles will now take a left turn and drive up a ramp near the airport metro station turn right and reach the departure terminal.
• Cars that come to drop passengers at the international terminal will enter through a new gate, take a left turn, drive up the farther arm of the flyover & take a right turn to reach the departure terminal before driving down a ramp near the metro station.
• Vehicles reaching arrival terminals on the on the ground floor will follow the same circular pattern as before.
• Three points have been opened on GST Road for vehicles coming out of the airport to take ‘U’ turns to go towards Pallavaram.

The vehicle parking charges will remain the same. However, the charges will be revised shortly after the new traffic flow is established satisfactorily.

The new traffic plan was to be introduced in May this year, but it was delayed because the parking contractor who was also in-charge of collecting entry fee for vehicles defaulted and had to be terminated.

Chennai airport has made more space in the security hold area at gate 13 of the domestic terminal so that passengers would have space to wait for the boarding call.

The changes were made to ensure that more flights are able to board passengers at the gate on the ground floor of the terminal.

Airports Authority of India (AAI) is making space in security area of the ground floor boarding gates and has been adding chairs for passengers to wait because a couple of aerobridges are being removed to accommodate ongoing work to demolish the old domestic terminal and build an integrated terminal.

The expanded area near gate 13 of the terminal was opened last week by passengers in the presence AAI Officials.

A senior official said the changes were being made so that there would be more facilities for passengers who would be using shuttle buses. The airport has started boarding more passengers using shuttle buses during peak hours, especially for narrow-body and small airplanes.

The airport is facing a constraint due to construction work. The link building which connected the steel and glass domestic terminal and the international terminal is going to be pulled down in the coming days for which the work has started.

New chairs are being placed at the gates in an additional space of 1400 sqm on the ground floor of the domestic terminal as well. The additional space was made by taking over a passage that was running parallel to the terminals in the operational area where planes are parked.

The move also helps passengers and airlines as the number of flights is also high during peak hours and during the winter schedule.