Winter break starts, Kolkata airport sees holiday rush – Times of India

Kolkata News
KOLKATA: Buoyed by a large number of Kolkatans going on vacations immediately after the start of winter breaks at several private schools and an almost equal number of people – who live in other cities or abroad – coming back home for winter festivities, Kolkata airport is witnessing a sharp spike in passenger footfall over the last few weeks.
On Sunday, Kolkata airport clocked the season’s highest footfall with 56,902 passengers – 49,495 domestic passengers and more than 7,000 international passengers. At the start of the month, the passenger count had barely touched 50,000. But airport and airline officials opined that based on the upcoming bookings, the passenger count is set to cross 60,000 by this weekend.

“The passenger footfall had started increasing since November but since the start of the December, there has been a further rise in passengers who are mostly flying to holiday destinations or going to attend weddings in different parts of the state. There are also a large number of Indians living abroad who return home during this time of the year, contributing further to the rise in passenger count,” said a senior airport official.
Techie Soumya Mukherjee is leaving with his family of four to Varanasi for a week’s holiday after his son’s school announced winter vacation on Friday. “For families like us, vacations are planned depending on holiday schedules of children. Hence, although we know it’s going to be very crowded during this time of the year, but this is the only period we can plan a winter trip,” said Mukherjee.
Subhamita Chaudhuri, who teaches at a school in UK Swansea, is also back in the city after a year with her husband and child. “We plan our home visits checking the holiday schedule back in UK. We reached the city last week and plan to celebrate Christmas here and attend a couple of weddings before we return to UK by late next month,” said Chaudhuri, a resident of Hindusthan Park.
With the rise in passenger footfall, there has been a steady rise in complaints of long queues and delayed security checks at the airport as passengers point out the glaring shortage of CISF personnel.
“Airports in India have become chaotic. Kolkata airport has closed security check in counter 1, causing inconvenience and long queues at checking counter 2 even at 2.45am. Only 1/8 security check points is open, causing long queues and inconvenience to people,” Saurabh Deshmukh, a flier, posted on Twitter early on Monday. Airport officials said they have taken a number of steps, including advancing the morning shift time of CISF personnel and bringing in additional manpower from international section, but they are still struggling to handle the excess traffic.

Source: https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMif2h0dHBzOi8vdGltZXNvZmluZGlhLmluZGlhdGltZXMuY29tL2NpdHkva29sa2F0YS93aW50ZXItYnJlYWstc3RhcnRzLWtvbGthdGEtYWlycG9ydC1zZWVzLWhvbGlkYXktcnVzaC9hcnRpY2xlc2hvdy85NjM1NzUxNy5jbXPSAXpodHRwczovL20udGltZXNvZmluZGlhLmNvbS9jaXR5L2tvbGthdGEvd2ludGVyLWJyZWFrLXN0YXJ0cy1rb2xrYXRhLWFpcnBvcnQtc2Vlcy1ob2xpZGF5LXJ1c2gvYW1wX2FydGljbGVzaG93Lzk2MzU3NTE3LmNtcw?oc=5