Air travel has become costlier in the country but is still on the increase, and so are the troubles of passengers at the airports – more so for their loved ones who come to receive or see them off.

After the recent terrorist attacks on Karachi and Peshawar airports, security of the airports, and the people using them, became a top priority for the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). In that spirit, entry of visitors to Islamabad’s Benazir Bhutto International Airport has been drastically restricted.

New CAA rules that went into force on July 6 allow just one person inside the airport to receive or see off the passengers. But since old habits die hard and the new rule is not known to all, hundreds of such visitors are seen crowding the entrance of the airport these days in the sweltering summer heat, pleading and arguing with the airport security personnel to allow them in.

Grim-faced personnel turn down all pleas. However, the occasional “well-connected” pleader being allowed in keeps hopes alive and the jostling crowd stays on.

“Why should not I come to see off my sister-in-law?” Ms Rubina Bajwa, who came from Gujranwala, demanded to know after she was rejected entry on a very hot Friday. Reasons given to her by the airport authorities did not convince her.

“You should treat all visitors equally and also stop VIPs taking their visitors (inside) with them,” she said.

Her words left the security personnel unmoved. Indeed, they have welcomed the ban on visitors. Less visitors mean easier handling of air passengers and airport personnel, both in normal circumstances and in emergency situations.

“In case of a major disaster, presence of large number of people in the domestic or international terminal would entail more casualties. People should realize the security situation and co-operate with the security agencies,” said a security official.

Visitors overflowing the terminals have long been a problem for the airport authorities. CAA imposed a fee of Rs20 for each visitor to the Islamabad airport a few years ago to discourage the inflow of visitors. Instead, it encouraged public-spirited litigation that challenged the CAA move as depriving people of their fundamental rights to visit public places. However, the fee stayed generating some income for the CAA but no diminution in the number of airport visitors.

Now, the CAA has taken the unpopular step of restricting the number to just one visitor coming to the airport for receiving or seeing off the passengers.

On the other hand, vendors and their activities are seen thriving at the airport. CAA has allowed them to set up their kiosks and shops in the ever-squeezing space in the airport building.

A former Airport Security Force officer said CAA’s attention had been drawn to the mushrooming growth of vendors and it was suggested to shift the haj terminal to some other place. But the CAA did not take the issues seriously, he said.

“Vendors, money changers and kiosks inside the airport premises are security risks – especially when the airport authorities have been receiving terror threats on daily basis,” said the ex-official. Sometimes security personnel could not quickly move from one terminal to another due visitors crowding the terminals too thick.

Police personnel deployed at the airport feel visitors crowding outside the airport fence in the wake of the new restrictions could prove more dangerous in the event of terrorist activity.

“If nothing else, pickpockets would be more active in such large gathering,” a police official said. Unregistered porters and taxi drivers are seen hunting for clients outside domestic and international terminal, he said.

Upcoming Haj season will be another challenging task for the airport authorities, he predicted. “They have not chalked out any plan to control visitors who would arrive in much larger numbers to see-off and welcome the pilgrims. Stopping them could create ugly situations,” he said.

It would be better for the CAA to process the pilgrim traffic at the Haj complex to avoid large and dangerous gathering at the airport.

Published in Dawn, July 12th, 2014