HYDERABAD: The Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) was a visual of chaos on Monday as rules and regulations of social distancing went for a toss when flights started getting cancelled and confused passengers panicked for information and help. While the people who had early morning flights had a smooth experience at the airport, as the day progressed, crowds increased and passengers complained about how the no-contact regulation was broken multiple times with boarding passes and tickets handed over to passengers by airline officials.
Speaking to Express, Sayantan, a techie who was supposed to travel to Kolkata, said, “When I arrived at the airport, and even during the early morning hours, there was no crowd, and social distancing was being followed to the T. Our temperatures were checked with contactless thermal scanners and our IDs were checked remotely. We were asked to be seated in the lounge post the health check-up. A few hours later, we were informed that our flight has been cancelled.”
However, Saiju Gangadaram, travelling to Bengaluru, during an afternoon flight, shared a video of an absolute chaos during the boarding near the aerobridge. Passengers can be seen crowding together near the aerobridge leading to the aircraft. Many were spotted walking around in groups instead of being seated on the chairs marked away from each other. He wrote on Twitter, “What is the use of all the pain taken by citizens? What is the use of the Aarogya Setu app (sic)?”
Another passenger, Gourav Goel, who was at the RGIA at around 5.00 pm, shared a picture of passengers crowding around Air India officials to collect a piece of paper being distributed. Gourav took to Twitter to explain what was happening: “Airindia announcing names and distributing Boarding Passes violating guidelines for operation during covid. Clearly not prepared for operation. #airindia #resumedomesticflights #rgia (sic).”
Air India not prepared to handle crowd: Passenger
A passenger took to Twitter to share a picture of other passengers crowding around Air India officials to collect a piece of paper being distributed. He tweeted: “Airindia announcing names and distributing Boarding Passes violating guidelines for operation during covid. Clearly not prepared for operation.”