New Delhi: Passengers at airports in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s former Lok Sabha constituency of Vadodara, as well as Vijaywada in civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju’s home-state of Andhra Pradesh, will enjoy a unique “e-enabled flying experience” put in place by the government-run Airports Authority of India (AAI) that will see many features aimed at minimising human interface.
These include passenger ticket and verification through Aadhar card, ticket/boarding card barcode scanners at the entry of the departure terminal, boarding card scanners at the pre-security check point, e-boarding facilities and total cashless transaction at the airport.
In addition, the AAI is also planning to put in automatic machines with red and green buttons at some of its airports that will enable passengers unhappy with the airport experience to press red and those happy with the experience to press green so that feedback is immediately received by the AAI. If more red buttons at a machine in a specified area are pressed, it will send an immediate alert to the airport terminal manager.
The AAI is also planning to privatise the operation and management of its airports at Ahmedabad and Jaipur and a decision on whether to do the same at the Kolkata and Chennai airports will be taken subsequently after reviewing the performance of the Ahmedabad and Jaipur airports later. The AAI is also working on a biometrics identification plan at 43 of its airports in the country.
“Passengers at Baroda (Vadodara) and Vijaywada will have an e-enabled flying experience,” AAI chairperson Guruprasad Mohapatra told reporters.
The AAI chairperson said both Vadodara and Vijaywada have integrated modern airport terminal buildings and that the AAI had floated an “expression of interest” (from interested vendors) regarding the “e-enabled experience” planned for the two airports. PM Modi had won with a record margin from Vadodara in the Lok Sabha polls of 2014, but had subsequently given up the seat to retain the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat in UP from where he had also contested and won in 2014.
