Mumbai airport does away with the announcement system

The Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL), which handles the Mumbai airport, has decided to go silent and has stopped the use of the flight announcement system.

For the last two days, MIAL has advised airlines to refrain from making announcements at the domestic terminal of the Mumbai airport.

Officials from MIAL said that this practice is being followed at several international airports worldwide. Besides, it would help curb noise pollution.

"We have received complaints from passengers that due to constant announcements by different airlines at the same time, it creates confusion and unnecessary noise pollution. So we have taken this initiative," said a MIAL spokesperson.

Usually, announcements are made by different airline counters inside the airport premises to call out names of last minute passengers because of whom planes are kept waiting, during security checks and at the time of other formalities before boarding a flight.

Announcements are also made to inform that the boarding process has begun.

What do fliers think?

Fliers believe that the road traffic of Mumbai is a serious and unpredictable issue which at times results in passengers reaching the airport late. Yet they said that people should be more responsible, especially while traveling and when they need to reach airports before the prescribed time.

"People need to change their travel habits and reach earlier to airports. This will help in curbing the practice of making last minute announcements. Also the airport authorities should also try fitting multi-lingual message boards so that announcements can be prevented," said Hrishi Parna Rava, media professional and a frequent flier.

However some frequent fliers claim that this initiative of no announcements might create problems.

"This initiative of not making announcements wouldn't help. It is not justified that everyone should go and enquire at the counter for the smallest of things," said Ayushi Sinha, a private firm employee.

Initially, this will be tried at the domestic terminal and gradually extended to the international terminal.

MIAL officials, however, added that announcements will be made in case of an emergecny or in urgent situations. This practice is already in place at Delhi and Hyderabad airports.u00a0