Puneites return from festive break to total chaos at airport

Pune: Chaos and overcrowding was reported at the airport yet again, especially in late evening and early morning hours, over the last few days as Puneites flew home after the festive break.The airport authorities have made no official announcement about opening the new terminal and there was no way to manage the crowd, as such, at the existing building — which seemed to be bursting at the seams. Flyers said the rush during the late evening and wee hours for both arrival and departure was overwhelming and tiring.Baner resident Jatin Suri travelled from Chandigarh to Pune on November 18. “Even though the flight was comfortable, everything was the exact opposite at the airport.”He said around four flights had landed at the same time and there was chaos at the baggage conveyor belt area. Each belt carried baggage from two or more flights, and this led to further delays, confusion, chaos and even heated arguments. “I got my luggage after an hour of waiting. It took me around 20 minutes to manoeuvre the crowd and reach the gate.”Flyers also said flight delays were playing a major role in adding to the confusion. “On Sunday late evening and wee hours of Monday, quite a few flights were delayed. The number of flyers kept surging. The condition at one time was such that there were unmanageable queues at each boarding gate, people were jostling around, all seats in the waiting areas were full and many passengers didn’t even have space to stand properly. Such scenes have become commonplace during each festive season and airport officials look around helplessly,” said Gunjan Taleja, who had returned from Delhi.Pune airport director Santosh Dhoke told TOI that between 4am and 4.30am on Monday, there was a huge crowd at the airport due to the arrival of Baba Bageshwar. “Passengers didn’t exit the airport since they wanted to see him. We couldn’t force anyone out and this led to the crowd.” He said that this time during Diwali, an additional traffic of around 14,000 passengers was seen daily. “This is almost on a par with last year’s festive time. However, the numbers didn’t increase as much as we had expected since passengers were deterred by high airfares and chose other travel options,” Dhoke told TOI.Businessman and former MCCIA president Sudhir Mehta, a frequent flyer who travelled back to Pune recently, said, “During the festive season and peak holidays, the Pune airport always finds itself caught in a conundrum of escalating passenger numbers.” He further said that last week, the Mumbai airport made a world record of sorts by managing 1,032 flights in a single day on just one runway. “Compare this to our Pune airport which operates with lesser flights, but is always in a state of complete disorder. Opening of the new terminal and expansion of the runway would introduce some order.” Sources in the airport authorities said the new terminal was expected to be ready for operations by mid-December or early January, since fresh works were going on.Umesh Lal, who came from Patna, said, “They keep delaying facilities and people are forced to suffer. Why should a flyer be nervous about missing flights, because they are stuck in the security check queue even after reporting three hours in advance? Whatever steps the airport authorities are taking are not enough.”