Airport director denies any infra issue behind baggage delay, tells airlines to manage manpower efficiently

(Pic mailed)
Pune: Airport director Santosh Dhoke on Monday said the facility's infrastructure issues were not responsible for the delay in transfer of arriving passengers' baggage to carousels and stressed that airlines should properly manage their manpower for better efficiency.

Dhoke said all facilities at the airport were fine. "The old terminal building had four baggage belts. They were short. The new terminal has five inclined and longer belts. After a flight lands, it is the responsibility of the airline concerned to ensure that the baggage reach the waiting flyers on time. They need to pool in their resources and manpower for it. I met with the airlines' representatives and requested them to follow the same," the airport director told TOI, after an airline claimed that arriving passengers had to wait in front of the baggage carousels for over an hour because of infrastructure issues at the facility.
Many flyers flagged the delay in getting baggage at the airport. An IndiGo passenger from Coimbatore to Pune on May 1 told TOI, "The flight landed in Pune around 10pm and we got our luggage around 11.30pm. Thereafter, we contacted our driver at 11.35pm."
According to Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the first bag has to be on the baggage carousel within 10 minutes after an aircraft lands and the last within 30 minutes. "The airlines need to abide by the same. If it is not happening, it is a problem and they should address it," Dhoke said.
Many flyers were peeved over getting their baggage long after landing at the city airport. Ajay Singhania said he had to wait for his luggage for an hour on May 3. "IndiGo's flight (6E-6116) from Jaipur landed in Pune around 12.15am. Passengers received their checked-in luggage after almost an hour," he said.
The total duration of this flight was an hour and 40 minutes. Its flyers waited for luggage for more than half the flight time.
The same day, Shridhar Dumale wrote on X, "Flight 6E-2674 from Delhi landed in Pune at 11.23pm. It is 1am now and still no one has received their luggage."
In all these cases, IndiGo in its reply to flyers said they were looking into the issue with their airport team.
The delay in inbound flyers' baggage delivery occurs at the Pune airport mainly in the late evening hours, affecting passengers of IndiGo the most because it has the maximum flights from and to Pune among all airlines. IndiGo has 17-18 departures and arrivals between 11pm and 3am each day.
An official reply from the airline on the issue was awaited till going to press. Its sources blamed the airport's infrastructure for the problem, though.
Purushottam Naik, a frequent flyer, said, "This serious issue needs to be resolved through coordination. Passengers cannot be made to suffer like this."