By IANS
Chennai : The Airports Authority of India (AAI) officials at the Chennai airport are gearing up to ensure that the services are not affected because of the indefinite strike declared by the Airport Authority Employees’ Union (AAEU) starting at midnight Tuesday
“We will fall back to our contingency plans to see that the airport activities are maintained at normal levels by manning all the posts,” said Dinesh Kumar, director of Chennai Airport told IANS.
He added that none of the airlines has cancelled itsr flights from Chennai.
It is learnt that around 500 management staff would be pressed into service to maintain normalcy at the airport.
The Chennai airport has two terminals, domestic (Kamaraj Terminal) and international (Anna Terminal), which handle around 350 aircraft movements – arrival and departure – per day.
The domestic terminal handles flights connecting 20 cities while the international terminal connects destinations like London, Frankfurt, Dubai, Sri Lanka, Muscat and others.
Apart from Indian public and private airlines, the Chennai airport handles flights of foreign airlines like British Airways, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, Malaysian Airlines, Air Lanka and others.
Daily, around 33,000 passengers arrive and depart through this airport.
The officials said the strike impact on other airports in Tamil Nadu – Madurai, Trichy and Coimbatore – will not be as much as it may be felt on Chennai airport.
Asked about the possibility of demurrage charges to be borne by exporters and importers, officials said such charges would be waived based on the contingency.