NEW DELHI: Instead of separate designated pre-embarkation
security check
(PESC) points for domestic and international passengers, busy metro
airport
terminals could, with a design tweak, soon switch over to common PESCs. Depending on the time of the day and whether there are more domestic or international departures, the number of PESCs will accordingly keep altering. The aviation ministry has started discussions with other ministries,
Bureau of Immigration
(BoI) services,
Bureau of Civil Aviation Security
(BCAS), airport operators, airlines and stakeholders.
“Air traffic is rising at 15% per annum and India is the fastest growing aviation market globally. There is a limit to the increase in terminal area and manpower deployment and the need of the hour is to think out of the box for optimal resource utilisation. We are looking at swing barriers at PESCs for hour of the day system,” said highly placed sources.
The one roadblock for this is the fact that Mumbai CSMIA’s combined domestic-cum-international terminal (T2) is the only one among existing big airports that has immigration after security.
The swing system requires a common PESC area for all passengers first and then immigration for international outbound. New big airports coming up now will have immigration after security. In existing ones, this change will be required and that can be made as and when some renovation/alteration happens.
