CHENNAI: Passengers on international flights will be able to board aircraft from the ground floor of the international terminal in three months, with Airports Authority of India planning to open the unused international arrival hall for departures.“We will be able to start a few departures from the terminal in October,” A senior AAI official said. “This will help us handle more flights in the winter schedule.”Airlines like IndiGo have asked the airport officials if they can get slots to increase international flights by the end of the year.The ground floor of the building has been lying unused since 2013 due to lack of space to handle arrivals. Work is underway on minor modifications such as installing baggage conveyors to carry checked-in bags, boarding gates, check-in counters and bays for security checks to handle departures. The move to use the hall for departures was decided after an Airports Economic Regulatory Authority meet in March.“The ground floor of the terminal will come in handy because airlines have expressed interest to increase frequency to destinations abroad by the end of the year. IndiGo has asked for more slots, while Japan Airlines has checked with us about the possibility of starting flights from Chennai.”Mostly, short haul international departures to the Middle East and Southeast Asia may be operated from the space as these aircraft can be parked at remote bays and passengers can be boarded using shuttle buses. This would free up space for more flights in the departure terminal.The move will help airport authorities to manage departures better, as the old domestic terminal has been pulled down and work is set to begin to build an integrated terminal. AAI had received requests for new flights a few years ago, but could not fulfil them due to a space crunch at the terminals and lack of time slots for flights. Among the parties interested was Emirates, looking to base their aircraft in 2013, and Korean Air , the largest airline in South Korea.Sources said the move to use the space for departure would help stem the dip in growth rate of international passengers. The airport recorded a 6% increase in international passengers last year, much lower than the growth registered by Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata.

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