While there is no firm date at the moment, the Delhi Airport is getting set to prepare for a world where the Lockdown ends and they are back in business. A full house is going to be far at the moment, but the protection of the passengers and the staff from the CoronaVirus will be of prime importance when flights resume. In view of Delhi Airport to Resume Flights (at some point in time) in the near future, the Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi has rolled out a preview of what to expect when the airport is going to begin being available to passengers to fly again.
The airport has formulated SOPs for post-lockdown safety of the passengers which include social distancing, stringent thermal screening, positioning temporary quarantine centres and also continues to sanitize and disinfect the airport to ensure safety and well-being of the passengers, once operations resume. Thermal screening of passenger at all entry gates will be necessary before they enter the airport terminal.
Physical distancing between passengers
To enable safety precautions at the airport, GMR plans to maintain physical distancing through distinctive markings at the terminal. The special markings will be spread across the entry gate, check-in counters, self-check-in kiosks, security checkpoints, food courts, lounge area and the boarding area amongst others.
Here is a slide from the internal slide deck of Indira Gandhi Terminal 3 which prescribes physical distancing around the check-in areas. This is going to vastly reduce capacity, as we can all see and slow down how things will work.
Airlines to be allocated specific gates
For long, you could enter the airport from any gate and come closer to your respective check-in aisle walking inside the airport. This will change for the foreseeable future. At least at Terminal 3, Delhi Airport’s management has allocated specific gates to specific airlines, and one will only be able to enter from those gates. Here is how the allocation will work going forward at Terminal 3.
Continuous Sanitation
The airport maintenance staff have been provided with renewed and effective cleaning procedures to efficiently sanitize and disinfect the terminal building including the vital areas where human hands come to play such as elevator buttons, escalators, immigration counters, to name a few. Also, the airport will increase the frequency with which air gets replaced inside the covered area of the airport. More touchpoints will be provided with Sanitizers and there will be special bins to dispose of PPE.
Temperature Scan at the Airport before entry
Every passenger will be subject to non-intrusive temperature checks before they are able to access the terminal building with an infrared thermometer.
Bottomline
I’ve gone through the entire slide deck for the exit plan for Delhi Airport operations once the Delhi Airport to resume flights, and what it looks like is that arriving at an airport will here on be very different compared to what we are used to for now… Everyone will need to ensure they are at an adequate distance from everyone else. Passengers will be sequentially disembarked and embarked on the aircraft, and this means turnaround times will also increase.
What do you make of travelling in the post-CoVid-19 era and Delhi Airport’s plans to keep everyone safe in these times?
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I’m by no means an expert, but I don’t understand why the action to limit the entry door specific to your airline. It would seem like allowing entry from all doors allows people to space out further and avoid long queues from specific doors depending on time of day and flight schedules.
My only issue about this is what will the officials actually do? I have been to India so many times and I know from painful experience that people with any kind of position or authority act or can act at times capriciously. Two off and I have seen they simply do what they feel like doing I do not follow the rules.
Meant to say “too often” and “do not follow the rules”
Do you think lounges will be operational when service resumes?