Delhi airport witnesses chaos, passengers complain about long waiting hours

Delhi airport again witnessed chaos on Wednesday morning with some passengers complaining about three-hour-long queues for immigration and security check.

"It's an absolute mess at the Delhi International Airport. Yet again. Three-hour-long queues for immigration and security check. People are fainting, fighting. Most of the counters are not operational. Is this the new normal," said an air passenger Tanushree Pandey on Twitter on Wednesday.

Reacting to this, Delhi Airport responded, "We are not happy reading about your experience."

Many other people also reacted to this. "It is a daily affair and I am sure the 'staff' can see. The lines for immigration stretch beyond the entrance point. And people barge in and rush at the last minute...we are going to miss our flight and forge ahead," said Harish Tyagi on Twitter.

Aviation traffic has recorded steady growth in the last couple of months and many airports, including the Delhi airport have started witnessing longer queues of air-passengers.

Number of air-passengers at airports has already crossed the mark of four lakh passengers per day even during the weekdays.

As per the latest data, nearly 1.25 crore passengers were carried by the domestic airlines during January, 2023 in the country as against 64 lakh during the same period last year. The passenger load factor or occupancy of the airlines remained on the higher side in the range of 80 to 90 per cent.

During December, 2022 the Delhi airport, particularly T3, reported long queues of air passengers. Taking note of the inconvenience faced by the passengers at busy airports in the country, the authorities, including the Ministry and other stakeholders had discussed the capacities deployed and requirements to process passengers smoothly in an important meeting with different stakeholders.