CHENNAI: Confusion and chaos prevailed during peak hours at the Chennai airport past midnight on Monday. The reason? There was no one to collect and stack the baggage trolleys near the arrival and departure areas, as the previous contractors’ tenure ran out. Quite a few passengers were seen cursing and looking all around for a baggage trolley as they exited cars, outside the departure area. “My family has seven bags. It looks like we will have to carry it in manually,” fumed Naresh, who flew to Delhi on Tuesday morning. The absence of baggage trolleys was particularly apparent between midnight and 3 am, when international air traffic is at its heaviest and also between 6 am and 10 am, when most of the daily flights - to Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai and Kolkata - take off. A few disgruntled international travellers went as far as to place complaints with airport staff, terming it “ridiculous” and a “disgrace”.An AAI official confirmed that the duty manager had been swamped with complaints and had to organise temporary staff to collect trolleys from the car parking bays and stack them in the terminal. According to airport sources, a temporary operator had been asked to handle the operations. However, when it attempted to use the existing employees, they refused and asked for better wages. However, a compromise is imminent and operations are expected to resume soon, said the source.Airport Director EP Hareendranathan confirmed that a temporary operator had been hired and there were “a few takeover issues”.
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