Start early, check-in rules have changed

Check-in early or miss the flight. Check-in counters in big cities, including Bangalore will soon close 40 minutes before departure, thanks to a new Director General of Civil Aviation circular.

The circular, which was issued in October 2009 and has now come into effect, was aimed at reducing congestion at the Mumbai airport, which saw departure delays of 60 flights in eight hours on Monday.

Under the new rules, if airlines fail to push back (when a tractor hauls the plane to the taxiway) within the allotted time, they are given new slots 30-90 minutes later.

The ripple effect of this decision is now being felt in other metros like Bangalore, which will also have to tow the line and shut counters early.

Kingfisher Airlines, for instance, has decided to close its check-in counters for flights 40 minutes prior to departure.

With effect from midnight on Tuesday, the check-in counters for all domestic flights of Kingfisher departing from six cities—Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore—will close 40 minutes before departure.

Besides, the boarding gates for the airline’s domestic flights departing at all these airports will close 15 minutes before the time of departure.