Passengers at Patna airport will not be required to put tags to their hand baggage for a week from Monday.

The avoidable bureaucracy of stamping hand baggage tags and then checking the stamp — a process that delays boarding by several minutes — has been kept in abeyance as part of a weeklong project by the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF). After the trial, the civil aviation ministry will take a call based on the feedback from the airport authorities. 

Apart from Patna, the other airports to do away with stamping handbags are those at Nagpur, Guwahati, Lucknow, Jaipur, Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi.

The decision follows the weeklong pilot project at Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore which came to an end on Thursday. The initiative was launched on December 15 for a week following a meeting between the airport security force, CISF, Bureau of Civil Aviation Security and top executives of major airlines. The CISF plans to make it a permanent fixture if the trial run succeeds.

Most airports around the world don’t have the system of stamping hand baggage tags.

Metro takes a look at how the system could be beneficial to both passengers and airlines.

The system

As per the current rules, a departing passenger on domestic and international routes must get a security stamp on the hand baggage tag as proof that the baggage has been thoroughly checked and is safe to be carried into the aircraft cabin.

The objective of the project is to expedite security checks and decongest the pre-embarkation area. “The new initiative will be launched on a trial basis from December 26 and will run till January 2, 2017. The reason behind it is to lessen passengers’ inconvenience while at the same time trying to provide a friendly environment to travellers with better and hassle-free movement before boarding the aircraft,” said Rajendra Singh Lahauria, director of Jayaprakash Narayan International Airport, Patna. 

Lahauria said that often passengers end up missing their flights or get delayed by returning to checking areas in case of unstamped luggage; at times, the tags come undone due to which fliers have to run back to the security hold to get a new one to be allowed boarding. 

“On an average, it is expected to save five minutes per passenger, as they can now board their flights after getting other checks done,” Lahauria said.

He explained the handbags would be scanned properly, the only difference would be that there would be no stamping of the baggage tag. Those sitting with handbags in the security area would be considered to have gone through the necessary checks.

Earlier, a passenger used to attach a tag to his/her hand baggage after check-in. A CISF guard stamped the tag after the baggage underwent X-ray scan in the security hold area. Another CISF guard checked at the boarding gate whether the tag was stamped.

How it helps the airport 

The practice of doing away with baggage tag stamping will also enable the CISF, which is in charge of airport security, to optimise its workforce by enhancing surveillance at other vulnerable points. 

“As of now, we have one person per baggage screening machine just to stamp the luggage tag. Once we do away with the process, it will free them up to guard other sensitive areas,” a CISF officer posted at Patna airport said, requesting anonymity.

Director Lahauria didn’t think there would be any confusion among fliers since the process involved simplifying a procedure rather than adding another layer of check. He, however, emphasised that security will not be compromised at any cost.

“We still have to ensure that simplifying does not mean any compromise. Our back-up plan will be to increase random checks and enhance both manual and electronic surveillance. For manual surveillance, enough manpower is already at our disposal in the form of men who are freed up from tagging duties,” he said. “Strict CCTV surveillance can replace manual stamping and instead divert more force to profiling the departing passenger. We are trying to refocus CCTV cameras in an extensive manner.” 

How it helps the airlines 

That will be known only on Monday, when the project kicks off in Patna. But officials at airports where the system was in place for a week as part of the pilot project said boarding time has been reduced.

For a domestic flight with 170 to 185 passengers, the boarding usually stretches to 12-15 minutes. “Without the tags, the duration has come down to seven-nine minutes on an average,” an official at Calcutta airport said.

“Stamping a tag and then checking the stamp at the boarding gate takes up several seconds. If we can save those seconds for each passenger, the cumulative gain for a flight is significant,” he added.

Besides, the passengers whose tags are found to be torn at the boarding gate are asked to go back to the security hold area for a repeat X-ray scan. “This delays boarding,” the official said. 

“The move will help improve the on-time performance of the flights,” said captain Sarvesh Gupta, chairman, Airline Operators’ Committee, Calcutta airport.

How it helps fliers

At Patna airport, which lacks an in-line scanning system, passengers have to stand in an extra queue to get their registered baggage scanned. So, the pilot project was welcomed by all.

Abhishekh Singh, who works in a private sector bank, said: “I personally favour doing away of stamping of the tag as it will save time. 

However, it must be ensured that the airlines do not indulge in checking luggage at the boarding gate, as per the reports coming in from the initial trial run at Delhi and other airports.”

The CISF, while launching the initiative on December 15, had asked the airlines to randomly check passengers’ baggage at the boarding gate, more so when the threat perception is high.

Asked about this, Patna airport director Lahauria said: “The airlines have been asked to conduct Secondary Ladder Point Checking (SLPC) whenever there is a specific threat to airport.”

SLPC is conducted when the threat is at its highest level and passengers have to go through complete frisking just before entering the aircraft.