Bag rejection rate has increased at Mumbai Airport during the festive season due to prohibited items being found in the check-in bags of passengers. Capacity for checking and handling bags of passengers has been increased. 32% more passengers are traveling in August 2023. Dubai, London and Abu Dhabi are the most prominent destinations in this.
Mumbai: This time during the festive season, the number of people traveling through Mumbai airport has increased, so during check-in, the airport administration has caught prohibited items like copra, desi ghee, camphor and firecrackers. 10,850,465 bags have been handled by Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) from December 2022 to May 2023. Bags should be kept for about 8 km at Mumbai airport, this is the capacity of the luggage belt. The bag rejection rate due to prohibited items in check-in bags during the festive season has increased from 0.31 percent (December 2022) to 0.73 percent (May 2023). There is a complete guideline regarding the items which are not to be carried in the check-in bag of passengers. CSMIA says that passengers are continuously ignoring these guidelines due to which the bag rejection rate is increasing.
What is coming out in the rejection?
During festivals, passengers are carrying ghee, aarti camphor, oil, pickles, copra and incense sticks in the check-in bag. In May 2022, the airport administration had caught 943 copras during check-in of passengers. Apart from this, things like pants, power bank, spray, e-cigarette and lighter are also available. Passengers can keep some of these items with them in the luggage bag.
The bag gets scanned in 20 seconds
CSMIA said that being a world class airport, state-of-the-art scanning equipment has been provided here. With a modern bag scanner, a bag can be checked in 20-30 seconds. The administration said that this is why many banned items are being caught during scanning. Once the bags are scanned, they are handed over to baggage handlers within 10 minutes. There has been a 108 percent increase in passenger movement from Mumbai Airport this August. To avoid inconvenience to passengers, the airport has also increased bag checking and handling capacity.
32% more passengers in August
32% more passengers have traveled through CSMIA in August 2023 compared to August 2022. About 4.32 million passengers have traveled through CSMIA in August 2023. The number of international passengers has increased by 33 percent in the same month. Dubai, London and Abu Dhabi were the top-3 destinations for travelers. Delhi, Bengaluru and Chennai remained on top among domestic destinations. In just two days on 11th and 12th August, about 3 lakh passengers traveled through CSMIA, which is 8.4% more than the normal during these days. In the entire month of August, an average of 1.40 lakh people traveled through CSMIA every day.
Figures
- Managed 10,850,465 bags in 6 months.
- 9600 bags handled every hour from Terminal-2.
- 4800 bags handled every hour from Terminus-1.
- Forbidden items like copra, desi ghee and camphor found in the bags of passengers during festivals.
