Deliver baggage within 30 minutes of landing, BCAS tells airlines

The aviation security regulator gives February 26 deadline for compliance

The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) has asked all seven Indian carriers to ensure that passengers get their baggage delivered within 30 minutes of landing at airports.

The aviation security regulator has set a deadline of February 26 for the airlines — Air India, Indigo, Akasa, SpiceJet, Vistara, AIX Connect and Air India Express — to follow its directive.

BCAS started the “continuous” exercise of monitoring the time of arrival of baggage at belts of six major airports — Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru — in January as per the directions of Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia.

“Since the beginning of the review exercise, the performance of all airlines has been monitored on a weekly basis and has improved, but is not as per the mandates. The mandates require the first baggage to arrive at the baggage belt within 10 minutes of shutting off the aircraft engine and the last bag within 30 minutes of the same,” the civil aviation ministry said in a statement.

The monitoring is currently being done at six major airports.

“However, BCAS has directed the airlines to ensure that the mandated levels are achieved in all airports where they fly,” the ministry noted.

The mandates or the service quality requirements are part of the operation, management and delivery agreement (OMDA) that the Airports Authority of India signed with major airports such as Delhi and Mumbai when they were privatised around 20 years ago.