'Airports working on plan to tackle peak season rush'

Sixteen of India's busiest airports are working on a government-coordinated plan to tackle peak season rush, civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said in an interview to HT's Neha LM Tripathi and Sunetra Choudhury. The minister added that the plan includes deployment of equipment and personnel, as well as expansion of facilities, with deadlines for the next winter and summer seasons. Edited excerpts:

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The government has been working hard to prepare for the upcoming festive rush. What are the various initiatives taken this year apart from the ones taken last year? Is there a plan in place to handle peak hour flights during this travel period?

An airport is the conveyor, if you will, between the demand created by a customer and the service supplied by an airline and the role of a conveyor has to be one of facilitating demand reaching supply. Therefore there must never be bottlenecks on that critical path where you play the role of a conveyor or a facilitator because you happen to be the only gateway through which demand will meet supply. If the customer is ready and the supply is ready then there should be no reason why they should experience any hardship.