Arrived early at airport? Wait outside

Authorities to ask CISF to allow fliers in even if they turn up 4 hours before flight

SANJAY MANDAL, DEBRAJ MITRA | TT  | 08.01.24 :  Passengers in the departure waiting area of the airport on the night of January 4. The area does not have a washroom or a food stall: Picture by Pradip Sanyal

Prepare to sit out at the Kolkata airport if you arrive late at night for an early morning flight. Even during the day, passengers arriving more than four hours ahead for a domestic flight have to wait outside.

The security personnel would not allow you in.

The airport’s departure waiting area, which also has ticket counters of several airlines, is used by many passengers to spend the night as they are denied entry until four hours before the departure of the flight.

The area does not have a washroom or food stall. Men and women have to walk out, climb down to the arrival level and use a washroom.

Fliers who have early morning or late night flights and reach the airport well in advance, often the night before, suffer most. For such passengers, the only way inside is through gate 3C, on the second floor, near the airport manager’s cabin. Otherwise, they have to wait under the open sky or outside the terminal building’s entry gate.

They spend the night there, resting on a series of chairs, before it is time to enter the departure terminal.

The nearest restroom is on the ground floor, near the parking lot. It means a journey down the lift and then a walk.

On Thursday night, between 10.45pm and 11.30pm, The Telegraph saw scores of passengers waiting on the chairs.

One of them was Sachin Kinkale, who was headed to Assam.

Kinkale, who is in the army, is posted at Silchar. He was waiting for an Alliance Air flight at 6.55am. He came from Maharashtra’s Akola district.

“I boarded a train and landed in Howrah around 5pm (on Thursday). I reached the airport around 8.30pm,” said Kinkale.

CISF jawans at the gates directed him to gate 3C.

“They said I would be allowed to enter the departure area after 2am. So, I came here. There is nothing to do here, other than sleeping,” said Kinkale.

He asked another passenger to look after his luggage and then went to the restroom around 11pm.

Rina Bhowmik, a Belghoria resident, was fidgeting with her mobile phone, keeping her bags close to her.

Bhowmik was about to take a 4.45am flight to Port Blair. She is a regular flier and used to spending time at 3C. “I don’t like to travel alone in the dead of the night. So, I came early. They should at least have a rest room here,” said Bhowmik.

The ticketing counters of some airlines dot the area. As they downed the shutters as the night progressed, the area wore a more forlorn look. But more passengers started trickling in and occupying the chairs.

The airport’s integrated terminal building has 23 rooms, each with two beds, and two 10-bed dormitories for men and women. However, an official said the rooms are for transit passengers and women travelling alone.

A senior official at the airport said they had requested the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which looks after the airport’s security, to allow passengers inside the terminal, particularly at night, even if they come four hours before departure of a flight.

“There is no rule that stops passengers with valid tickets from entering the terminal on the day of their travel. We will again ask CISF officers to look into the matter during our next coordination meeting,” said the official.

Asked about the lack of facilities at the 3C gate in the departure area, he said: “The space is meant for passengers to buy tickets and leave. So, no facilities like washrooms, ATMs or food stalls were built when the terminal building was constructed.”