Airport Director
Airport Authority of India
Chennai Saturday, August 03, 2013
Dear Sir
Re: AAI Chennai – Arrivals/ Departure concourse – control barriers to keep traffic moving: ticketing with 5-minute duration and parking penalty when exceeded at exit of Rs 60 / 100
The new Arrivals/ Departures concourse at Chennai is protected by ticket barriers. Such barriers are not installed or seen at any airport in the whole of India or indeed the world (am just back from Bangkok & Yangon and London/ Belfast and Dubai). What is so backward about Chennai that AAI cannot control traffic flows at this messy entrance and pretty badly maintained front area of this new airport?
I represent UK-related business in this city and would like to comment that it is a shame that AAI Chennai has to have such a ridiculous system in place. Even if it is to control security for terrorist activities, this is not the way to do it!
Passengers arriving by taxis are harassed by drivers to pay parking charges of Rs 60- at least on basis they may be delayed by jams leaving at exit gates. All of us also know it takes a few minutes getting out of cars/ taxis and in taking out luggage. For older people, it can take longer – not sure what wisdom was used by AAI in estimating 5-minutes for dropping and exiting what are poorly designed approaches and gates (some of your people should inspect these)
We may also add that this procedure is a bit rich for a major state-of-the-art institution with ISO 9001 certification which over-ran cost and scheduling way beyond 5 minutes, 5 hours, 5 weeks, 5 months……
We would urge AAI Chennai to have these ticketing barriers removed at an early date and meet the standards normal for airports the world over
Yours faithfully
Christie Cherian
Chairman
British Business Group Chennai Trust