Heightened security measures due to increased threat perception notwithstanding, security lapses at Indian airports continue unabated, with an average of one security lapse coming to light in a month.
A total of 39 cases of security lapses have been noticed over the last three years by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), the security regulatory authority, according to information released by the Ministry of Civil Aviation.
There are a total of 449 airports and airstrips in India, out of which 126 are operated by the Airports Authority of India (AAI). Among them about a hundred airports receive regular commercial flights. Though traffic volume varies each month, in December 2019, operational airports handled 234.55 thousand aircraft movements, 31.85 million passengers and 282.73 thousand tonnes of freight.
Given the number of airports and volume of traffic, the number of lapses may seem miniscule, but in a highly sensitive environment, even a single incident can end up with disastrous consequences,” a senior officer said. “The said figure only relates to lapses that have come to notice. There could well be more, and alarm bells should be ringing in the concerned quarters,” he added.
The Ministry’s figure comes in the backdrop of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India in November 2019 that had flagged several loopholes in security at sensitive airports, including shortage of CISF personnel and low availability of technical equipment such as baggage scanners and explosives detectors.
