Airports to get ‘zero contact’ system
Patience. This will be the key quality you need to display when you arrive at the airport to board a domestic flight, as and when operations are resumed across the country.
As the Centre prepares for staggered resumption of flights after May 18, all stake holders involved in the airport management have taken up a slew of measures to ensure social distancing, safety and will have a ‘zero contact’ system.
To begin with, passengers need to arrive at the airport two hours before the flight and download the Aarogya Setu app on their phones. Next, they will have to fill up self-declaration forms regarding health status and any Covid-19 related isolation or infection. While face masks will be compulsory, passengers should preferably bring printed or electronic boarding passes with them.
Passengers will have to stand in queues outside the departure gate in boxes or circles drawn on the floor at a distance of 4-6 feet from each other. There will be hand sanitizer kiosks where everyone will have to sanitise their hands.
At the gate, the body temperature will be checked with a distant thermal meter or screener. Anyone having more than normal temperature will be referred to the health desk.
“Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel will be wearing personal protection equipment (PPE) suits. They will have face masks shielded by a plastic sheet. They will no longer will be doing the one-to-one checks. There will a camera to which the passenger will have to present the ticket and ID and the CISF personnel will see the enlarged version on a tablet or webcam from a distance of at least one metre or across a seethrough plastic cover and crosscheck the details,” Mr
C.V. Anand, IG Airport sector II, West Central South India, CISF, told Deccan Chronicle.
The passengers are likely to be allowed to carry only one piece of check-in luggage of less than 20 kgs and no hand baggage will be allowed except hand sanitiser bottles of less than 350 ml, medicines and absolute essentials in a small pouch or bag. Final orders are awaited on this aspect.
No decision has been taken on whether or not laptops and power packs will be allowed in the cabin baggage.
Check-in kiosks will not be used. Airlines will be using alternate counters to maintain safe distance. At unmanned counters, the ticket scanner, boarding pass printer,and bag tag printer will be placed for the passenger to collect the printout.
The manned counters will have glass separations. The passenger will approach the counter, show the ticket under the scanner and place the baggage on the weighing belt. The airline staff will issue the boarding pass and bag tag which have to be collected by the passengers.
At the pre-embarkation security check area, Special focus will be laid on the CISF Frisker, watching any beeps emanating from the door frame metal detectors as the passenger walks through.
“There shall be no stamping of boarding cards and they will be digitally monitored by well placed HD CCTV cameras. The CISF personnel who will frisk passengers will be wearing a PPE suit, the hand held metal detector will be attached to small rod/pole for frisking. The passenger will be asked to turn around for frisking on the rear,” Mr Anand said.
Once past the security check, the passenger will be able to sit in marked seats at the boarding gates or even in the eateries and shops. The order for food will be through contactless menu-ordering-payment methodology and delivery will be at designated points in sealed tamper proof packaging.
A similar socially distanced queue, checking at boarding gates by CISF/airline staff will be done. Boarding will be done one hour before departure. Inside the aircraft, passengers will be greeted by PPE-clad air hostesses and sanitisers will be offered first up. Serving of food on flight will be in prepackaged boxes and minimum contact principle will be followed throughout the flight.
It is learnt that the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security along with the CISF, Airport Authority of India and various airlines are still working on the finer aspects.
Mr Anand said contactless and touch free processes, leveraging technology have been developed by the various airport managements throughout the country, as per the resources available with them.