Queue up as airport to withdraw inline scan

CHENNAI: Passengers flying to foreign destinations from Chennai will be forced to stand in long queues to scan their bags before checking in as the inline baggage system is to be shut down soon. The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) has found that the three machines at the airport are not up to the mark.
The inline scanning system scans bags dropped into a conveyor at the check-in counter using a high-slice X-ray as they move towards the basement baggage handling area, allowing passengers to walk to the check-in counter without getting bags manually scanned.The system can handle 1,200 bags an hour.
The BCAS told AAI not to use the machines, it has planned to install stand-alone X-ray scanners in the new departure terminal.
Sources said no date for decommissioning has been fixed but the machines are likely to be taken out of service by the first week of December. Two machines were shifted from the old international terminal while the third was brought from Jammu. A fourth, brought from Calicut, is yet to be installed.
AAI plans to borrow Air India’s baggage scanning machines and install them at the terminal till the inline machines are recalibrated and certified. Air Passengers Association of India (APAI) president D Sudhakara Reddy said that during peak time every international traveller would have at least one bag to check-in. “If three flights are scheduled one after the other there will be 700-1,000 passengers waiting to scan bags at the stand-alone baggage scanner. There is a feeling the queues may extend way outside the terminal.”
An airport official said, “The new terminal is designed with the assumption that inline scanners will be there. There is not much space left in the hall for X-ray machines and the long queues of travellers.”
Of the four gates, only Gate 1 and Gate 4 are used to let passengers into the terminal. Gate 3 is for visitors and Gate 2 is kept closed.