The Hindu : Front Page : Flights normal, ground conditions at airport abnormal

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Feb 04, 2006

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Front Page

Flights normal, ground conditions at airport abnormal

Staff Reporter

Day Three of strike by airport staff one long nightmare for travellers

DAY THREE: The scene at Delhi airport on Friday. - PHOTO: V.V. KRISHNAN

NEW DELHI: Stretching into Day Three, the strike by agitating Airports Authority of India (AAI) employees at Delhi airport passed off quite uneventfully with flight operations largely normal throughout Friday though conditions on the ground for the passengers continued to be woefully abnormal.

While the striking workers openly defied Delhi High Court orders prohibiting them from protesting within 500 metres of the airport by continuing to sit outside the arrival terminal of the domestic airport as they had done for the past two days, unlike the angry protests that brought traffic to a standstill for most of Thursday there was no attempt to inconvenience the passengers by stopping entry or exits on Friday.

Waiting for copies of the High Court order, the workers claimed that they would continue protesting at their usual place till they got the official word.

Some workers blocked the entrance to the terminals for about 10 minutes in the morning but with the police stepping in immediately the situation was quickly defused.

Basic amenities, however, were badly hit and empty cartons, plastic cups and heaps of paper lay strewn around the floors. Public utilities like toilets were also affected, too, since for the past two days they had not been cleaned. However, with private airlines being requested to pitch in for help and some contract workers being brought in, toilets were finally cleaned. While they might have not been squeaky clean, efforts were made to ensure that the discomfort to the passengers was minimal.

"The situation was not so bad. The terminal was dirty. But otherwise I faced no other difficulty. The situation was worse at Chennai airport earlier in the day. I requested the airline to give me gloves to use the toilet. But of course they didn't have any,'' said Rajesh Shroff arriving in Delhi from Chennai.

Travelling light, Mr. Shroff had no problem wheeling his trolley out, but Suneet Kumar flying in from Srinagar with his family did not have an easy time at the Delhi airport. Forced to scout around for his trolley, it was no easy exercise. "I had to come out of the terminal to find a trolley. There was none inside. The terminal was also not clean,'' he said.

There were some reports of aerobridges not functional at the international terminal of the airport. But according to official sources, these were stray incidents. "The aerobridges require very experienced people as they have to be positioned exactly right. So it was thought better that passengers should alight off by stepladders,'' said an official.

Claiming that they were being portrayed negatively by the media, the striking workers made an effort to get their side of the story through to the passengers, asserting that they were not against modernisation. Handing out an appeal to passengers apologising for any inconvenience caused to them, the handbills also gave passengers "facts" about "nefarious designs'' of the Government.

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