No printout, no entry!

Allow passengers to enter domestic airport only after they furnish printed ticket

A day after the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) issued orders facilitating entry to airports with display of soft copies of air tickets, passengers were put thorough inconvenience at the domestic airport yesterday, as security personnel denied them entry yesterday.

Delhi businessman Rajpal Singh, who was on a day visit to the city, was at loggerheads with airport staff after Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel denied him entry because he had a soft copy of his ticket on his mobile phone.

Utter chaos: Passsengers flock to airline counters at the domestic airport to print tickets after CISF personnel denied them entry yesterday. Pics/Shailesh Bhatia

"When I boarded the same airline on Tuesday morning from Delhi with the e-ticket on my mobile, no one stopped me. Now, I am being asked to shell out Rs 100 for printout of my ticket," said Singh.

Rajpal further added that if the concept of soft copy has beenapproved, why has the airport staff not been instructed accordingly. "I have already shelled out Rs 9,000 as airfare. Courtesy demands that the airport or the airlines do not overcharge for a printout from passengers," he said.

Yusuf Saify, another businessman from Indore, who was flying to Ahmedabad by an evening flight, opined that there was no point in issuing orders, which has been passed for the convenience of the passengers, when it is not being implemented.

Ravi Jhangu, a Mumbai based actor, too expressed his discomfort saying charging Rs 100 for a printout that would normally cost less than two rupees was daylight robbery.

"Allowing passengers entry on the basis of soft copies is a fantastic idea for hassle free air travel, but concerned authorities need to be made aware of the ground realities, " said Jhangu.u00a0u00a0

The other side
Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) spokesman Vaibhav Tiwari said that the concept of accepting soft copies on smart phones, mobiles and tablets was still in its proposal stage. "We have accepted the proposal, but its implementation could take another week. We have installed printers at each entry point, where passengers can get their hard copies free of cost, so they do not have to go to any airline office and pay exorbitant prices" he said.

Voices
I stood in a queue for twenty minutes, only to be turned away because I did not have a hard copy of the ticket. Now the airline wants me to shell out Rs 100 for no fault of mine
Rajpal Singh
Businessman, Delhi

The whole idea of implementing this was to spare the passengers the headache of carrying a printout. E-tickets are environmentally friendly, as they save electricity and paper
Ravi Jhangu
Actor, Mumbai

Had I known that the rule is
yet to be implemented, I would have carried a printout of the ticket. Now, it will cost me
Rs 500 to get the same for
my family and me
Ghanshyam Jha
Businessman, Zimbabwe

It looks like our railways
are more advanced, as they implemented the system of accepting soft copies of
tickets about a year back
Yusuf Saify
Businessman, Indoreu00a0