Air India on Tuesday issued advise requesting domestic travellers to arrive at the airport at least 3.5 hours before departure, as opposed to the 60-minute guideline for domestic flights, amid a frenzied rush and confusion at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International airport. International passengers, meanwhile, are urged to arrive four hours before takeoff.
Additionally, the airline has encouraged all customers to just bring one piece of carry-on luggage to ensure a smooth security check and a full web check-in for a quicker boarding process.
"Passengers are advised to reach at least 3.5 hours for domestic and 4 hours for international before their flight departure times for faster movement at the Airport," Air India tweeted.
For the past week, Delhi Airport has experienced severe congestion due to higher-than-normal foot traffic. The government acted quickly and called the CEO of Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) to discuss the situation.
To ensure a smooth flow of passengers, the civil aviation ministry has also mandated decongestion procedures and requested airlines to station enough staff at all check-in and baggage drop points.
Budget airline IndiGo urged customers earlier today to arrive at the airport at least 3.5 hours before domestic departures and bring one item of hand luggage weighing up to 7kg.
Since they were the closest to the airline's check-in desks, IndiGo also encouraged its customers to use gates 5 and 6 to enter Terminal 3 of the airport.
Jyotiraditya Scindia, the Union's minister of civil aviation, paid an unexpected visit to the Delhi Airport on Monday in response to a flurry of complaints about delays caused by the traffic on social media and elsewhere.
