Self-security checks to improve your airport stay

Airlines can significantly bolster the speed and efficiency of their service to passengers by introducing self-security checks and dividing queues.

And by tweaking the basic infrastructure, the airport can improve passenger services in the long hours they spend in the lounges and gates when they indulge in shopping or dining.

These are among the suggestions the Kempegowda International Airport implemented after three researchers from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) created models to improve passenger services.

Now, the researchers - Ashish Verma, Divyakant Tahlyanb and Shubham Bhusaric from the Department of Civil Engineering, Centre for Infrastructure, Sustainable Transportation, and Urban Planning (Cistup) - are implementing the models in the upcoming second terminal.

The trio recently published their study paper 'Agent-based simulation model for improving passenger service time at Bangalore airport'. The airport management has adopted the model.

While preparing the paper, the team found people spending long hours at the airport to either shop or eat, which are not essential activities. Making some basic changes to the infrastructure had greatly improved their experience, Verma said.

While the airport authorities adopted the models, Verma said the airlines were yet to espouse them. The model can obviate the requirement that passengers must reach the airport two hours before their flight timing. Rather than looking at the passenger's convenience, airlines are turning a deaf ear to hassles, Verma said.

He said the IISc models helped the airport authorities reduce crowd in some gates, something they struggled to solve.