Purpose
Many of you might be on the fence, deciding on whether or not to travel by air during this time. The purpose of these posts is to narrate my 3 day old travel experience by air under current Covid-19 restrictions, help you prepare for the trip and enlighten you on what to expect. I flew Indigo and whatever I am going to share is for this airline.
DISCLAIMER : Posted here are my experiences and not the official rules issues by airlines/ aviation authorities/ State Govts. I would request you to view my experiences as
only guidelines which would hopefully clarify some unanswered queries.
The Great
• CISF has gone hi-tech with hand held scanners and tabs -seeing this for the first time in my life
• Security checks are non-contact type
• Airline issues a PPE kit neatly packed in a plastic cover – the kit comprises a face shield, a mask and a few sachets of sanitizer
• a PPE suit is issued to all those passengers travelling in the middle seats viz. Bravo(B) and Echo(E)
• for the first time, I’ve seen passengers stay put in their seats until the aircraft doors are opened on arrival
• Air traffic is picking up
• people are conscious of social distancing, but there is still room for improvement
What could be improved
• the system of issue of PPEs varies from one airport to another
• poor adherence to social distancing norms while boarding, deplaning and queuing
Pre-Flight Web Check in
1. The airline mandates a web check in for the flight – this opens 48 hours ahead of scheduled departure of the flight and ends 60 minutes before scheduled departure of the flight.
2. does not offer seat selection for free – typical seat prices are INR 150-300.
3. If one doesn’t opt for seat selection, the passenger would receive boarding passes with pre-allocated seats.
4. The web check in also requires generation of a baggage tag for check-in baggage; this baggage tag thus generated is e-mailed to the passenger.
5. Baggage allowance is ONE piece weighing a max of 15kg, one piece of hand luggage weighing a max of 7kg. In addition, they allow one personal carry on item weighing upto 3kg (this was the norm before the Covid shut down too).
6. There is also a self health declaration form which gets generated and e-mailed along with the boarding pass to the passenger.
I printed my boarding pass, baggage tag and the health declaration form before proceeding to the airport
All other guidelines apply. eg.
1. keeping power banks, mobile chargers, laptop chargers in hand baggage
2. disallowing explosive and other stuff like always
At the Airport Entry and Check-in
I boarded my first flight at a Class B city airport, and whatever is posted here is my experience:
1. Every CISF jawan at entry is shielded by a transparent enclosure.
2. They asked me to show my boarding pass/ ticket and my ID, and they examined the same just by seeing these from behind the enclosure.
3. Every jawan had a passenger list; the jawan verified my passenger details on the list with him.
4. On entry inside the airport, there was a thermal scan on my wrist and after that a second level scrutiny by airline staff.
5. The airline staff verified my passenger details against their manifest, and my E-pass ( if one is travelling to states that require this). The PPE kit was issued here. Again, this might be different at different airports.
6. Check in baggage was screened by CISF immediately after step 5.
7. The baggage was screened again by the airline and those rocket like tag was installed as always.
8. At baggage drop, the pre-printed baggage tag was not taken, instead they generated the baggage tag as per normal practice stating that scanning of the pre- generated baggage tags was an issue.
9. The baggage stub was not given, instead the agent said I'd get an sms once on board. I did receive an sms but only to confirm acceptance of my baggage at BLR to be loaded on to my connecting flight.
I understand that if one did not complete a web-check in, there was a INR 100 charge for check-in facilitation at the airport.
Security Check and Boarding
1. Before the Security check, CISF insisted on me putting the face shield on.
2. Before entering Security check area, the CISF jawan again looked at the boarding pass from behind the enclosure.
3. The face shield has a laminated protector on both sides.
I didn’t remove that and found that I had no vision, but only a mission. . I also realized that the right way of wearing the face shield was by ensuring that the belt is low down on the head. When I wore the band at the same level as the forehead, I started having headache after some 30 minutes.
The correct position of the band
4. CISF insisted that I put all electronic devices and chargers in the tray/ bin for scanning.
5. Security check was absolutely non-contact; the jawan was in a PPE suit
I was asked to show my boarding pass to a camera. They used a long metal detector (similar to a mine detector), and did a full body check, front and back, with only the detector - no use of hands.The experience from the gate to the air bridge to the aircraft was as usual with NO sequential boarding. Passengers in seats B and E were provided a PPE suit before boarding commenced.
In-Flight
No change except that the cabin crew recommended placing hand baggage under the seat in front. However, I saw several passengers place their baggage in the overhead bins.In-flight meal service was a cold affair – no hot beverages served.On arrival, passengers started getting up from their seats only when the aircraft doors had been opened;
pretty good discipline compared to pre-Covid times !!