Coinciding with the first anniversary of Airport Metro Express, the much-awaited check-in facility for flights abroad at its stations kicked off on Thursday.

The new facility would help flyers to hop on to the Airport Metro baggageless.

National carrier Air India and private airlines - Jet and Kingfisher - began the check-in facility at New Delhi and Shivaji Stadium stations on the first day. While Air India opened the facility for its flights to five Gulf countries and Nepal, Jet Airways will provide the facility for its flights to Kathmandu and Kingfisher to Hong Kong initially.

Mirza Muzaffar, a native of Muzaffarpur in Bihar, was the first to avail the check-in facility at the Air India counter at New Delhi station.

“I work in Abu Dhabi and I came to know about this facility only after reaching Delhi. I got my boarding card. Now I would meet my relatives outside and board Metro later,” he said.

Metro officials also felicitated Mirza for being the first flyer to get boarding pass at New Delhi station.

“Passengers have to check-in minimum two-and-a-half hours prior to their flight time. Fliers can check-in and collect their boarding cards maximum eight hours prior to their flight time,” a Reliance Infra spokesman said.

Check-in facility for domestic fliers has been in operation for the past few months on the Airport Metro and the launching of check-in for international fliers has been long overdue.

A Reliance metro official said they expect a good number of international flyers to check-in from the two stations as several passengers from across north India taking international flight from Delhi visit the capital through railways.

“It would be convenient for such flyers to check in at New Delhi Metro stations and travel to the airport baggageless,” the official said.

Presently around 200 domestic flyers check in from the facilities available at Metro stations.