Airport Metro not an option for passengers on 135 night flights

To end the impasse between the airlines and private operator Reliance Infra on handling responsibility for the check-in process,the Civil Aviation Ministry has proposed that passengers be charged for this additional service,rather than the airlines. “Though all the major domestic airlines have been approached in this regard,even Air India is not convinced about the additional cost of Rs 50 they would have to shell out per passenger. Even if the passengers travel on the maximum ticket of Rs 150 and pay the additional Rs 50 in case they want to check in the baggage,the cost would still be much less than what they would incur while taking a taxi from the New Delhi railway station,” a ministry official said.

An official of the Airline Operator’s Committee said the airlines would be more than willing to come forward once the burden of the additional cost is lifted from their shoulders.

“Most of the international flights operate between 10 pm and 6 am. So those passengers cannot avail the Metro service. However,for even domestic airlines to start operations at the Metro city terminals,we will keep a watch on passenger response,demand and ridership figures in the initial days of operations to decide on setting up counters,” the official said.

Sources said baggage handling would be outsourced to a ground handling agent,and a decision to this effect would be taken in another two days.

A spokesperson of the Reliance Infrastructure-led concessionaire said the trains will start running for 20 hours once the inspection is over. “Initially,we will run the trains only for 16 hours,” he said. A decision on running the train for even 20 hours would be taken in a few weeks,after the operators gauge passenger response to the service,he added.