Airport staff on leave, operations affected

KOLKATA: Don't bank on flight announcements at Kolkata Airport, if you are taking the night and morning flights.
Chances are you may get misled. For, three of the eight woman staffers assigned for this job have gone on maternity leave, making it difficult for the Airports Authority of India to run the service round the clock. You may well remember that every time you fly, you pay Rs 235 for these information updates.
Senior officials didn't foresee the problem while sanctioning the leave.The AAI has now appealed to various airlines to update the flight information display system. The airlines, however, are not amused. "It's amazing. We pay around Rs 2.25 lakh per day as service charge to the AAI," said one airline official.
The AAI has written to airport managers informing them that the studio room designated for making announcements and updating information will remain closed from 8 pm to 8 am for the next three months as long as there is a shortage of staff.
Airlines staff have been asked to make their own announcements from makeshift cubicles installed at the domestic lounge and the international terminal manager's room.
According to an AAI official, the three women had applied for leave at different times. "No one realised that all of them had applied for leave during the same period," the official said. "Of the 12 sanctioned posts, we are already short by four. Besides, another woman staffer has been transferred to the apron department," he said.
As a stop-gap arrangement, apron control will send information to terminal managers and airlines staffers will have to collect updated flight information from there. They will then have to go to the computer terminal to make announcements. Thereafter, they will also have to guide passengers to the right terminal.
"The system is not at all convenient as we realized during the two-day training programme organised by AAI. There is a strong possibility of giving out wrong information," said an airline official. Mahesh Kaul, deputy director of Kolkata Airport, said, "The problem arose as it is an all-woman department. We will try to sort it out as soon as possible. We have lined up interviews in the last week of May to fill up the vacancies. If everything goes fine, we can sort out the problem well before three months."