Redevelopment at the Mumbai airport is a known fact. But due to this if the passengers have to stand in queues for hours disembarking long-haul flights, it surely calls for attention.

At 4 am this morning after arriving from Dubai on a Cathay Pacific CX750 flight, Jeetendra Sharma, a frequent flier, had to stand in the queue for customs clearance for more than an hour. The reason, according to him, was that only two counters of the Mumbai customs department were operating and there were more than 300 passengers waiting to get customs clearance. “There was a glut of passengers at the airport this morning because three flights had landed simultaneously and only two counters of the customs green channel were working,” said Sharma who along with a friend had to stand in the queue for an hour.

“After travelling on a flight for over two hours and that early in morning this is the last thing one wants,” said Sharma whose flight landed between 3:30 and 4am. “Between 4 and 5 am, I was standing in the queue,” Sharma rued.

But Sharma is not the only flier who faced woes at terminals 2B & 2C from where the airport’s international operations are carried out. Newsline spoke to a host of passengers who landed at the Mumbai airport on the kinds of inconveniences they faced at the airport. Most passengers said that while airport facilities such as clean toilets were improving, areas such as baggage arrival and queuing up for customs check up were major areas of concern.

But according to the customs authorities there can be queuing up of passengers in case of flights from Dubai and Singapore since the baggage screening percentage for flights from these destinations were higher. “These are sensitive places. Therefore the screening percentage is much higher,” said Customs Commissioner Baljeet Singh Nunwal. According to Nunwal, there can be various reasons for passenger delays and one of them can be late arrival of baggage because movements of tractor trolleys in the terminal 2B area is limited and only one trolley can unload at a time while the others should wait.

According to Nunwal, the customs authorities have had meetings with the Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) authorities to improve the baggage arrival system in the terminal areas.