New Delhi: The Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) on Saturday asserted that it has taken several measures to provide a “safe and healthy environment” to passengers flying out of the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA).
Installation of automatic hand sanitizer at various places, putting floor markers, allocation of entry gates and check-in islands for departure passengers has been done to encourage compliance of social distancing norms and minimize human contact at the airport.
The following arrangements have been made at the Delhi Airport:
For the entry into the airport
• To distribute passenger load in the departure forecourt, DIAL has moved from current all gates all airlines to allocation of designated gates to airlines to enter into the terminal building.
• All passengers will need to download the Aarogya Setu App on their phones, prior to reaching the airport / at the forecourt itself.
• Provisions has been made for thermal scanning of passengers as per Government guidelines.
At the Check-in
• Check-in islands have been aligned to ensure smooth flow of passengers from forecourt into check-in to security.
• In order to avoid close contact and crowding at the counters, passengers will be encouraged to check-in at home or use self-service facilities such as self-check-in facility, self-bag tag facility, scan & fly, etc.
At the Security check and immigration (for international flyers)
• Alignment of queues to ensure social distance among CISF/immigration staff members.
• Deployment of queue managers, social distance markings, seating arrangement with social distance norms have been made before security check to avoid crowding.
• Tray disinfection SOP for passenger safety will be maintained and auto-dispensing sanitizer machines have been kept for passenger to use after security & immigration checks.
After the Security check
• Passenger will move to security hold area (SHA) where they can go to food court, lounges, and retail shops. Social distance marking have been put in food courts, lifts, seating etc. Strict & stringent SOP would be maintained for Food and Beverage (F&B) shops, lounges, retail shops and all other non-aero areas to ensure safety, health and hygiene.
• To avoid crowding at one place, DIAL would encourage all F&B and retail shops to remain open. Contact-less Retail and F&B Options
• Passengers would be encouraged to download HOI app, a dedicated AI-enabled app for Delhi and Hyderabad airports, for contact-less commerce. It can also be used for contact-less food ordering.
• HOI, a cognitive and intuitive travel app, will help the travellers in navigating the airport seamlessly.
Contact-less food ordering and payment service are one of the unique features of HOI app.
• Passengers can avail this facility by simply downloading the app on their Android or iOS device,
sign-up and add their upcoming flight’s travel details.
• Apart from contact-less food ordering feature, this app has several valuable features for both the airports’ passengers, such as real-time flight status alerts, boarding gate and belt information, airport facility information, time to gate and waiting for estimates, weather at destination amongst others.
• Passengers can use self-ordering kiosk at the food court to avoid queuing. They can also avail of
Delhi Airport’s unique food delivery service “Food Genie”. Digital payment and the digital menu would be encouraged to minimize contact.
At the boarding gate
• Seating arrangement with the marking of chairs for non-usage has been made to ensure social distancing. Queue managers would be deployed for boarding & bussing gates.
For arriving passengers
• Social distance marking have been put up at aerobridges, piers, lifts, travellators, etc. Also, provision of hand sanitizers at the exit of passenger bridges /bus gate arrival area has been made.
• All departure baggage would be disinfected at Ultraviolet (UV) light disinfection tunnel, developed by DIAL. Similar SOP is being developed for arriving international baggage.
• Social distance markings have been put up around baggage belts and additional seating arrangement have been made in this area for waiting passengers.
• Social distance markings have been put at all transport waiting areas and SOP is being worked with cab providers for disinfection of cabs before use at the airport. Similar SOP for metro & other modes of transport would be initiated.
• Visitors entry into the terminal will remain temporarily suspended.
• To encourage compliance of social distancing norms at the airport, DIAL has deployed additional queue managers at the kerbside (city side), check-in halls, security check areas and boarding gates, with social distancing markers/reminders.
• DIAL will encourage all passengers to wear masks and maintain social distancing at all times, to
ensure their own safety and well-being.
Sanitization of high contact surfaces
• Deep cleaning of 608,000 square metre terminal is carried out every day. A team of 500 professionals have been deployed to carry out frequent disinfection drive after every hour.
• Regular sanitization of high contact surfaces such as desks, chairs, elevators, railings, CUSS, trolleys, handles, trays, baggage belts, etc. inside the terminals would be carried out. Apart from these, washrooms will be closed after every hour to sanitize all its surfaces through both UV tower and regular cleaning.
• For the safety of passengers and staff, trolleys would be disinfected through the disinfection tunnel after each use.
• Air inside the terminal will be one of the cleanest among all utility buildings. The system has been put in place that sucks air inside the terminal into the Air Handling Unit (AHU), where it gets sanitized after passing through UV light and Hepta filters, before being injected again into the terminal building. We have systems which replaces air inside the terminal every 10 minutes.
• Apart from these, DIAL will also have facilities to isolate suspected COVID-19 passengers at the airport in accordance with government direction.
The whole process has been designed to ensure the highest level of safety without compromising on passenger comfort. “Delhi Airport is all set to open for commercial flight operations after two-month shut-down. We would like to assure passengers that at Delhi airport, they would be in a safe and healthy environment," said Videh Kumar Jaipuriar, CEO-DIAL.
"We have implemented several unique initiatives at the airport to ensure passengers safety without compromising their comfort and experience. Our teams have worked round-the-clock to sanitize the vast terminal to provide a hygienic condition. DIAL will continue its awareness drive by educating and encouraging passengers to maintain social distancing while at the airport,” added Jaipuriar.
As per the direction of the Centre, domestic flight operations will resume after remaining suspended for about two months, following nationwide lockdown due to coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation announced on May 20 that domestic flight operations will recommence in a calibrated manner from May 25, 2020. Commercial operations of domestic and international flights were suspended from March 24, in a bid to contain the spread of coronavirus pandemic in the country.
