Patna Airport: Long queues outside and congestion inside.

Passengers rue air travel out of Patna, as they have to wait for hours to just enter the terminal building and then have to go through a manic rush to catch their flights.

At times, fliers do not even get enough space to turn their luggage trolleys as the entire terminal building of the Jay Prakash Narayan International Airport is packed like sardines.

This, despite all arrangements made by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) like providing additional makeshift waiting space for fliers who reach several hours before the scheduled departure of their flights, allowing them inside the terminal building only two hours before departure and banning the entry of visitors inside.

"I stood for over one hour just to gain entry into the airport terminal building. More time was spent at security check and by then the Go Air flight that I was to board was ready. Announcements were being made for the passengers to board though many of them were still stuck in the queues for security check," a flier who identified himself only as Mishra without proffering his first name told The Telegraph over phone from Calcutta.

Mishra suffered a bout of panic as the queue for security check was moving ahead at snail's pace. Finally, better sense prevailed among the AAI staff, CISF and the airlines crew and they opened a separate path for passengers of that particular aircraft.

Another passenger, Seema Kumari, said she repented coming to the Patna airport to catch a flight as she had to spend three hours on tenterhooks and in discomfort.

"Next time I will prefer a train if I have to go to Calcutta. It will save much mental harassment and fatigue that I suffered at the Patna airport," Seema added.

Patna airport director R.S. Lahauria said the main reason for the congestion was lack of space inside the terminal building and the winter schedule of flights.

"We have very less space inside the terminal building and flights operate in bunches during winter. Moreover, the building has just one entry and one exit. All this leads to congestion," Lahauria said.

He added that a few steps, including expansion of the terminal building and security hold area, will be taken up in the coming months.

The airport, which can accommodate around 600 people at a time, will also get capacity for 24-hour flight operations, which, Lahau-ria said, will "lessen the congestion".

Altogether 27 flights depart from the Patna airport during winter, which is nine less than 36 during summer. The flights are expected to go up to 44 by March 2018.