Delhi airport delays: Chaotic scenes as major Indian transit hub overwhelmed by holiday travellers

Passengers forced to wait for hours in serpentine queues to seek entry into airport

File: Passengers leave the Indra Gandhi International (IGI) airport in New Delhi (AFP via Getty Images)

The holiday rush at India’s busiest airport in capital Delhi has left passenger grumbling on social media as they struggled to navigate serpentine queues and security checkpoints at the terminals.

Chaotic scenes unfolded at the Indira Gandhi International Airport with passengers waiting for hours to seek entry into the transit hub, before facing further bottlenecks at various spots, including security and immigration.

“I had an update from the airlines about the chaos and reached the airport two-three hours early Monday morning. The airport was still a mess,” Arpit Sahni, a passenger told The Indian Express, adding that he “barely made it” to the flight.

“My airline called me and asked me to rush. I was sweating and got worried. We think some people even missed their flights. This is infuriating,” he said.

“I was sent to the supervisor alongside 10-15 other passengers from my flight who were unnecessarily stopped, and we were told that we should’ve come four hours earlier if we wanted to catch this flight,” Reuters journalist Shaina Ahluwalia shared on Twitter.

“Having no other option, I requested for another flight at the reservation desk where they only gave me an option to book a flight for the next day at an additional cost. They also added a penalty of nearly 4k extra on top of it.

“I saw all the multiple reservation counters of Air India completely full of people for hours while the single counters at other airlines seemed to have a few people at best,” she said.

“Once upon a time, an airport,” wrote user Anand Datla, sharing a picture from inside the building where a sea of masked and unmasked passengers were seen waiting in queues.

“Delhi airport is now Hotel California,” tweeted author Joy Bhattacharya. “You can check in any time you like, but you can never leave!”

On Monday, aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia visited the airport and spoke with authorities about the chaos.

The added congestion at the normally busy airport has been largely attributed to a sudden increase in the number of travellers at the year end, after two successive years of Covid-19 pandemic hitting the tourism sector. The aviation industry has been broadly caught underprepared and understaffed to tackle the travel rebound after the easing of Covid-linked restrictions.

Airport authorities also blamed fewer counters, smaller space, as well as limited security staff for the failure to tackle the surge.

According to an Indian Express report, there are about 5,000 security personnel covering the entire airport, including terminals, airport gates as well as security checks.

The number remains the same since 2017, when the passenger load was around 57 to 65 million a year. The passenger load has risen to 70 million, an official told the outlet.

The Delhi Airport said that they are deploying additional systems and personnel to tackle the surge in the number of passengers.

“We have deployed additional manpower to guide passengers, especially at key choke points, and shifted one additional X-Ray machine. Additional manpower requirements will also have to be addressed by all stakeholders, including Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and Immigration, to further improve the situation,” they said on Saturday.

The efforts have received support from the federal government, with the aviation ministry saying that it is working alongside the airlines to ensure that the departures of flights during peak hours are reduced to 14. The data related to the normal traffic was unavailable.

The authorities have also increased the number of departure gates, with Mr Scindia directing the airport authorities to display waiting time at all entrances to allow passengers to move towards less crowded areas.