CHENNAI: With summer vacation nearing, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) is gearing up to face an increase in passenger traffic at the Chennai airport . Steps are being taken to prevent congestion at check-in counters and at security check during peak hours. There is an increase in domestic passengers during extended weekends and officials expect an increase in April and May.An airport official said, “We have been seeing an increase in passenger movement during an extended weekend and during weekends in the last few months. So we are taking steps to prevent congestion at check-in and at the security check. Though the same number of counters and personnel are available, we have told airlines to inform passengers to report early.”Staff to monitor check-in and security check, more counters, new passageways or crowd control measures are being taken to cut long queues.These steps are needed as the airport does not have an inline baggage screening system, which would have let passengers check in without screening their check-in luggage.He also said that there are more passengers at the domestic terminal because airlines have started flights to smaller towns. There are direct flights to Jaipur, Bhopal , Lucknow and others and these flights will be on demand during the summer vacation.Airlines are also monitoring flight movement and passenger density during the peak hour and are posting staff to assist people at check-in and also at the security check. “staff will be deployed to assist passengers at baggage scanning and security counters so that the departure process can be speeded during the peak hour,” said an official. Similar measures were taken during extended weekends earlier in the year.The flights to smaller towns in addition to those to Udan destinations have led to an increase of 15% in total passenger traffic. However, the infrastructure inside the terminal and on the airside where plane parking bays and taxiways are located is not enough.The domestic terminal alone handles around 10,000 to 15,000 passengers a day — especially during the peak hour in the early morning and late evening.An official said there would be a surge in passengers when airlines offer low fares to fill the seats which were not sold due to high fares triggered by high demand. “The fare is high because of the demand and majority of the seats have been filled because of the holiday travel. There is a chance that offers can be introduced to sell the rest of the seats. This will add more passengers at the airport on domestic routes,” said an airline official.An AAI official said that work was on to add a terminal so that the passenger capacity can be increased to 30million a year, which was double the numbers handled by the airport including international passengers. “Inline baggage system will be introduced at both the international and domestic terminals soon. Once this work is over, the congestion will go down. Till then, the temporary measure will be continued to ease passenger inconvenience,” said an official.

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