For months now, outbound passengers at Chennai airport have been jumping out of their cars so the vehicles can exit the premises within the stipulated seven minutes and avoid the parking fee.
Beginning April 1, they will have an additional three minutes to do so. On Friday, airport officials announced vehicles could now stay within the premises for a total of 10 minutes without paying a fee. At least 15,000 vehicles enter and leave the airport every day. Passengers have often expressed their inability to leave the airport within the stipulated time owing to long queues on the ramp during peak hours.
AAI officials, earlier, said the reason for such a short window was to prevent vehicles from lingering, as that led to traffic congestion.
“We started receiving a lot of complaints from passengers saying it was unfair to impose such a rule. So, after discussions, we decided to change the time limit from seven to 10 minutes,” an AAI official said.
