Lahore Airport Queues 'longer than flights'

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Abbas Ali
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Lahore Airport Queues 'longer than flights'

Post by Abbas Ali »

* Passengers complain of long queue times, blame airlines

* Carriers blame delays on inappropriate distribution of clearance counters

By Hasan Ali


LAHORE: Passengers traveling abroad have complained of very long clearance queues at the international departure lounge of Allama Iqbal International Airport (AIIA) ostensibly because of a shortage of counters.

“The queues are getting longer than the flights,” said Saleem, a visibly annoyed passenger bound for Syria. “Lahore airport desperately needs more counters.”

Another traveler said it was frustrating to wait in a queue when the other counters were empty. “I think it’s not about the number of counters,” he said. “They need to improve the clearance mechanism.”

Qayyum Hussain, a frequent traveler, said he spent 45 minutes in a clearance queue on his way to the United Arab Emirates last month. “I asked an official why we couldn’t move to an empty counter, and he told me it was not allowed.”

There are 25 passenger clearance counters at the airport, of which the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has permanently allocated 12 to Pakistan International Airlines (PIA). Other local and foreign airlines get two or three each at the time of flights. Queues in front of these 13 “revolving counters” are lengthened when the number of departing flights is more than five.

“These passengers end up scuffling when someone tries to jump the queue,” an official said.

A Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) official told Daily Times that private airlines had asked the authority for four counters each. He asked not to be identified because he was not authorised to talk to the media. A private airline official confirmed that they had made the request.

CAA spokesman Kamran Malik said the authority had received the request and it was being processed at the CAA headquarters in Karachi.

“If the passengers have to wait, the private airlines should deploy more staff to the counters,” he said.

But private airline officials said the civil aviation laws did not allow airlines other than the national flag carrier to deploy more than one official per counter. CAA officials declined to comment on the issue. The CAA spokesman said he was not aware that such a law existed.

Asked why the PIA had been given more counters than other airlines, he said it was the national flag carrier and it operated more flights than any other airline.

PIA Spokesman Athar Awan said his organisation paid for the counters and had even installed its equipment on them, so it was not possible for other airlines to use them.

The CAA charges Rs 700 per passenger as airport tax from all airlines, and Rs 12,000 for each clearance counter.

Source: dailytimes.com.pk
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raihans
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Post by raihans »

It is sure that the queues goes long and long at AIIAP when there are number of Intl. flights from foreign air carriers along with PIA. Last time, I have spended more than an hour to get my baggage booked for under carriage and later on another 25 min. for immigration.....

At Kuwait International Airport, KU has seperate lounge and rest of the carriers are in seperate lounge. As I am a KU traveller and on my recent visit to Pakistan, noted that around 70% counters were operational for KU flights. Intresting to note was that KU flyer could book baggage at any counter as not any single counter was specified for any individual flight....
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