Now, check-in to stop 40 mins before flight

July 21, 2010 - PRLog -- MUMBAI: Strict norms enforced from this week mean that if flights miss their scheduled time of
departure for any reason, they'll face huge delays. That's translated to airlines making sure everyone is on board well before departure time.
http://www.travelchacha.com/mauritius_p_mumbai.html
While airlines have started informing passengers about the new deadlines for check-in and
boarding, Kingfisher Airlines extended the new timings to six cities from Tuesday midnight.
"The check-in counters for all domestic flights departing from Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Chennai will now close 40 minutes before departure," said
a Kingfisher spokesperson. This means the counters will be closing 10 minutes earlier than
before. But the boarding gates will close only 15 minutes prior to departure, the official
added.
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In Mumbai, around 45 flights had to move to revised slots for take-off on Tuesday after
they missed their scheduled time of departure.
"Only a few early-morning departures were delayed today," said M G Junghare, general manger
of Mumbai airport, comparing it to Monday when 21 morning flights were given revised slots
as they were not ready at the scheduled hour. "By evening, about 45 flights were moved to
new slots for failing to adhere to their scheduled departure timings. The new slots given
were within 15-30 minutes of their originally allocated slot," he added.

According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation Air Transport Circular 10 of 2009,
the commander of the flight should ask for aircraft push-back or engine start up permission
latest 15 minutes before departure. If that doesn't happen, the departure slot is lost.
Even after putting in the request for push-back as per the deadline, the flight can take
off as scheduled only if the aircraft commences push-back within five minutes of getting a
go-ahead from air traffic control.
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The sudden switch to stricter norms has been a logistical nightmare for airlines and
pilots. "We missed the push-back deadline by five minutes. When I contacted air traffic
control they asked me to go for a revised slot," said a commander operating a domestic
flight. "Incidentally, I got a revised slot without much delay as with limited number of
parking bays available at the airport, they had no option but to move my aircraft out to
accomodate the flights that were landing," he added.
The new norms have played spoilsport for economy-class frequent flyers who have fine-tuned
the skill of zipping through check-in and security counters at the last moment to cross the
boarding gate just when it's about to close.
"Right now, it's like testing the waters. I don't remember reaching the airport for a
domestic flight an hour before departure, but I did it today," says Piyush Chawla, an IT
executive. "I generally reach the airport about 25 minutes before departure. Since I board
about three flights in two weeks, the 40-minute deadline for check-in would mean about 90
minutes extra spent in the Mumbai airport per month," he said. "But if the flight is going
to be on-time, I do not mind," he added.
"For business and first-class flyers since there are separate counters for check-in, the
new norms will not mean reaching airport much earlier than usual," said Sudhakara Reddy, a
frequent flyer and president, Air Passengers Association of India. Most airlines have also
been keeping their premium passenger check-in counters open for longer than the regular
check-ins.