Private airlines are advised on VIP movement: Patel

Civil aviation minister Praful Patel today said that all airlines operating from Indian airports have been advised to ensure proper facilitation of VIPs upon timely intimation of their movement.
 
Asked whether there was any mechanism in Airport Authority of India (AAI) to ensure that protocol is strictly followed by private airlines for VIPs, he said that the Airport Authority of India (AAI) provides stipulated facilities to the VIPs such as reserved lounges and free access to terminals and visitors' galleries at the airports.
 
The private airlines are accordingly advised regrading the VIP movement, Patel said in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha.
        
"Airlines have been advised to ensure proper facilitation of VIPs upon timely intimation of their movement," he said to a query on the details of protocol arrangements made for VIPs in various airports by private airlines and Airport Authority of India (AAI).
 
The minister's statement assumes significance in the light of the incident involving frisking of former President A P J Abdul Kalam by staff of US-based Continental Airlines at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here.
     
Meanwhile, replying to another query, the minister said that the Punjab Government has sent a resolution to name the new airport at Chandigarh after 'Shaeed-e-Azam Sardar Bhagat Singh International Airport' and to rename the Amritsar International Airport as Guru Ram Dasji International Airport.