Study confirms airport baggage delays

Passengers sometimes wait for up to an hour to see their bags rolling down the belt: AAI

A common grouse among passengers who fly in to Chennai is the long wait to collect the baggage at the terminal.

Harried passengers often take to social media to vent their anger. “Flight arrived at 8:20, baggage arriving to the belt at 9:40, Chennai airport is the best in handling the baggages,” tweeted Venkat recently on his handle @venkat1INDIA. An exasperated Venkat couldn’t help the sarcasm.

Another passenger through his handle @dinu757 posted: “50 mins to start baggage belt and worst services. No responsibility and immature labour.”

What has been known anecdotally has now been established by a recent study by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) that operates Chennai airport. The study found that it can take up to one hour for a passenger to see his or her bags rolling down on the belt.

The study was initiated after frequent complaints by passengers.

Done over a month, it sought to analyse how long it takes for checked-in bags to travel from the aircraft to the belt in the terminal.

During the study period, for eight days, it took nearly an hour for passengers to get their baggage. On one occasion, it took 81 minutes.

Analysing bottlenecks

Officials of the AAI said they did this study to zero in on bottlenecks in the bags’ journey.

“Now that we have the results, we will hold discussions with the stakeholders and find out where the problem lies and how it can be rectified. We will make sure the issue is resolved at the earliest,” an official said.

Passengers say the problem is particularly bad in the international terminal. Suhrith S, a passenger, said that when he returned from the U.S. a few weeks ago he had to wait for nearly half hour at the belt to get his bag.

“The flight journey is tiring enough for us. Standing in the terminal for long is frustrating. Sometimes the baggage is not handled well either,” he said.

Sources at Chennai airport said various factors were involved in baggage arriving at the belt on time, including the type of aircraft, its capacity and where it is parked.

If it is a wide-body aircraft and parked away from the terminal, then it takes longer, sources said. Airlines have set deadlines for how soon the baggage should reach the passengers, sources added.

“Ideally, for a domestic flight, baggage should reach within 15-25 minutes and for international, about 45 minutes," an official said.