Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Oct 8: The airport here, which has employed additional precautionary measures in the interests the passenger safety, has adopted touchless concert. The airport is also turning into a paperless airport to minimise communication between the airport staff and the passengers.

In the past, boarding passes, tickets and documents were to be presented to the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel before entering the airport. Now, it is enough if the documents are shown to the person sitting inside the glass counter from outside. The baggage tags are not issued, but sent by SMS.

Mangaluru International Airport (file photo)

People not having boarding passes can scan their barcode in the mobile and get printed passes. At the security check counter, the passes should be shown to the cameras. The trays in which the belongings of passengers like mobile phones, purses etc are kept for security check, are not touched by hand. Trays once used are sanitised before reuse.

In the past, the boarding passes were scanned by the airlines staff but now the passengers themselves do it. Boarding passes in mobile may pose problems in scanning. Therefore, it is being printed even now, and otherwise the entire process has become paperless.

The airlines employees use a well-equipped kit for the wheelchair passengers. In the three-seater aircrafts, the passengers in the middle is given body gowns, says Archana, IndiGo station manager.

Currently, SpiceJet, IndiGo and Air India are operating flights from the local airport. As against several flights which operated before the lockdown, now only four flights to Bengaluru, one to Chennai, one to Hyderabad, three to Mumbai and one flight to New Delhi are being operated. Overseas flights are only those operated under the 'Vande Bharat Mission’.

Airport director, V V Rao, says that touchless system has been adopted to minimise contact between the passengers and the staff. He said that the passengers have provision to do online booking and use online baggage tags.