Airport inline baggage scan delayed

Passengers catching flights from Calcutta will be denied what is considered a basic facility at most airports — inline baggage screening — at least till mid-January, officials said on Tuesday.

Those who will fly out during the Christmas-New Year holiday season will have to stand in a separate queue to get their baggage scanned, raising the possibility of flight delays.

At airports where inline screening is in place, passengers deposit their check-in baggage at the airline counter before collecting their boarding passes, without getting them scanned at standalone X-ray machines.

Inline baggage screening was supposed to become operational at the airport after Puja. But the rollout had to be deferred because tests conducted by Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which functions under the US department of homeland security, have revealed some problems, officials said.