Baggage delivery improved at all major airports after watchdog's warning to airlines

New Delhi: The baggage delivery system at all major airports in the country has undergone significant improvement after the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) issued strict instructions to airlines to ensure that the last checked-in baggage is delivered within 30 minutes of arrival.

According to sources in the Ministry of Civil Aviation, in order to address the inordinate delay in baggage delivery on the arrival of flights, BCAS has issued an order setting the targets for baggage delivery by airlines.

For Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai airports, the target set for last baggage is 30 minutes under service quality requirements of the Operation Management and Development Agreement (OMDA).

For Hyderabad and Bengaluru airports, which come under concession agreement, the target for last baggage is 15 minutes.

This effort has considerably addressed Baggage delivery delays. During 14 January to 16 March, baggage received within 30 minutes has improved from 62 percent to 84.8 percent.

It was further informed that to address the issues of congestion at 16 major airports, a special drive has been undertaken for these airports identified for facing congestion namely Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Cochin, Goa, Guwahati, Jaipur, Lucknow, Patna and Trivandrum.
A consolidated effort has been made by improving deployment of CISF, Manning of Immigration Counters, increasing screening equipments, and increase in Entry Lane and check in counters.

"Since November last year, additional XBIS, additional lanes, additional check-in counters and additional immigration and Emigration counters have been set up at many airports in order to felicitate smooth passenger movement," said a senior official.

After getting many complaints of baggage delays, BCAS initiated a monitoring exercise in January 2024 to track the arrival time of baggage at belt areas in six major airports.

The Operation, Management, and Delivery Agreement (OMDA) standards mandates stipulate that the first bag should arrive at the belt within 10 minutes of engine shutdown, with the last bag arriving within 30 minutes.