Chennai: Chennai lags behind Kolkata even among Airports Authority of India (AAI) managed airports in the country, as revealed in the ACI-ASQ survey that assesses the satisfaction level of passengers.
Despite spending Rs 2,015 crore for expansion of the city airport, the poor upkeep of the terminals has left Chennai airport a distant second to Kolkata. Thiruvananthapuram, Srinagar and Ahmedabad airports are within 10 ranks of Chennai.
The Airport Service Quality survey of the Airports Council International is conducted every three months. Waiting time at check-in, security, immigration and number of baggage carts available are the key performance indicators. For the April-June quarter, Chennai airport scored 4.30 points out of 5, its best performance in the last three years.
However, the users are not so happy about the survey results. “I don’t believe these surveys are real. Everything in Chennai is bad. Right from stinking toilets, falling ceilings and granite slabs, breaking glass panes, water seepage, exorbitant parking charges and the recent ‘no- vehicles’ rule on the approach to terminals, the travellers are really unhappy,” said Air Passengers’ Association of India president D. Sudhakara Reddy.
Chennai airport assistant general manager (PR) Harbhajan Singh claimed that the rating of 4.30 was above the target (4.20) set by the civil aviation ministry. “In the rank list too, Chennai airport has moved up to 56th position as against previous quarter’s 114th position. It proves that we are improving in passenger perception rating ,” he added.
Nevertheless, the airport union feels that the AAI should improve maintenance. “Cleanliness is the main issue at Chennai airport terminals. When the AAI expanded the terminals, they began to outsource in all areas including housekeeping. But what it failed to do was to increase manpower to supervise the work and enforce neatness,” said Joint Forum of Union and Association of AAI secretary L. George.
