Civil aviation minister chairs meeting ahead of winter peak travel season

The meeting was conducted to ensure all measures are being taken to proactively implement all possible measures to facilitate a smooth and time-saving travel experience for passengers during this period

With the upcoming winter peak travel season around the corner, Union civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia held an Advisory Group Meeting with Airport Operators on Tuesday and emphasised on the importance of preventing congestion at airports, government officials said on Wednesday.

Union civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia. (File)

The meeting was conducted to ensure all measures are being taken to proactively implement all possible measures to facilitate a smooth and time-saving travel experience for passengers during this period.

“In the meeting, the minister listened to the queries and suggestions from operators and guided them to ensure optimal operations for the convenience of passengers,” said a statement from the government.

Officials said that the meeting was attended by all airport operators including GMR Airports, Adani Airports, Bengaluru and Cochin Airports and the Airports Authority of India. The secretary Civil Aviation, Vumlunmang Vualnam, director general (DG) Bureau of Civil of Aviation Sector, Zulfiqar Hasan, DG DGCA, Vikram Devdutt and other joint secretaries and senior officials of the Ministry were also present in the meeting.

Currently, DigiYatra is available for domestic passengers at 13 airports of the country, including Lucknow, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Kochi, Jaipur, Guwahati, Delhi, Bengaluru, Varanasi, Vijayawada, Pune, Hyderabad, and Kolkata airports.

“To explore best practices, the airport operators were also tasked with presenting biometric enabled models being successfully used in other countries,” the statement added.

The Minister also reviewed the Capital Expenditure target of all airport operators, aligning it with the actuals obtained in Q3.