Chennai domestic airport’s check-in counters will close 45 minutes ahead of a flight departure from Wednesday and boarding passes will not be issued after that. This is as per the DGCA directive on ‘On Time Performance’ or OTP of airlines which comes into effect from September 1, 2010.

The issues were sorted out at a final meeting of airport officials on Monday regarding questions raised by various airlines over the take-off time. The directive will be strictly implemented, which means the doors of aircraft will be closed 15 minutes ahead of departure.

The airlines had pointed out a lot of delays, noting that the security check-in counters provided by CISF was causing serpentine queues and delaying passengers even after the completion of the procedure. The airport authorities have decided to open more frisking counters and more security gates taking note of this.

The strict enforcement of these rules in Mumbai and Delhi had led to a significant improvement in the OTP of airlines. In Delhi the increase is highly appreciable as it has risen to 50-60 per cent from 15-20 per cent, while in Mumbai it has now reached 70-75 per cent from 40-50 per cent.