These airports now delivering baggage in 30 mins

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One of the biggest irritants in the experience of any traveller in any airport anywhere in the world is the baggage delivery time – a needless time window when a passenger is made to wait, after completing all formalities, for his luggage to arrive. Half a dozen airports of India have achieved a significant slashing of the baggage delivery time at Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad.

The improvement has taken place in the past four months. According to civil aviation ministry statistics, in excess of 90% of the passengers got their baggage within 30 minutes of the aircraft landing.

The improvement has been quite prompt since only a shade above 62% of the passengers had this experience when the improvement began.

Incidentally, 30 minutes from the landing is the prescribed norm globally within which the baggage of any aircraft should be delivered to its passengers.

The ministry has also directed all domestic and international airlines that are operating at other airports to lessen baggage delivery timings.

Repeated information on delays in baggage arrival prompted the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security to launch an exercise in January to improve baggage delivery system of the domestic airlines at the country’s six major airports mentioned above.

As per the global standards prescribed by International Air Transport Association and the provision under the OMDA (Operation, Management and Development Agreement) with airports, baggage should be delivered to passengers within 30 minutes of the arrival of the aircraft.

In a statement on May 21, the Ministry of Civil Aviation said that when the exercise was started on January 14, only 62.2 per cent of the passengers got their baggage within the 30-minute window.

An analysis was made by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security following which domestic airlines were partnered with the authorities to upgrade equipment and to speed up baggage delivery after landing.

“From 62.2 per cent of passengers getting on-time baggage delivery in January, the number increased to more than 90 per cent from March 2024 onwards…the percentages of bags arriving within 30 mins has reached a high of 92.5 per cent in May 2024,” the official statement said.

The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security had asked seven airlines such as Air India, Vistara and IndiGo quickly implement necessary measures to ensure timely delivery of baggage. The operations of these seven airlines were scrutinized across 3,600 flights before formulating the measures.