‘Trolley’less travel troubles domestic flyers; authorities warn of virus spread
CHENNAI: The curbs on flying have been relaxed, but the bar on providing trolleys for domestic passengers to carry their luggage is continuing at Chennai airport, which has become a cause for argument between them and officials. While passengers are unhappy about not being provided trolleys, officials maintained that it was not possible to sanitise all of them, which thus poses a risk of infection spread.
The Centre had allowed air travel but with several restrictions. One of them was the decision not to provide trolleys to domestic passengers, who were asked to travel with minimal luggage. However, after most of the lockdown restrictions were lifted one by one, the passenger count at domestic terminal has gone up substantially.
Most of them are seen carrying regular luggage. But with trolleys remaining unavailable even now, the passengers are forced to carry the luggage, including the heavy bags. This has led to frequent arguments between passengers and airport officials at the domestic terminal. The passengers noted that trolleys were being provided to international passengers, and sought similar facility for domestic passengers as well. However, airport officials are unwilling to budge. According to them, the decision on not providing trolleys was taken by the authorities due to the risk of coronavirus spread if several hundred passengers are using it. “It is not possible to sanitise all of them every time before providing to the passengers,” officials added.
Sources said that there are around 1,500 trolleys at the domestic terminal.