Chennai: Airports Authority of India forms team for mask compliance

CHENNAI: The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has formed a team of employees to ensure that passengers wear face masks and follow social distancing inside the terminals at Chennai airport.
The compliance team moves around the domestic and international terminals and reminds passengers to maintain social distancing and also to wear masks.
The move comes after there were complaints that many people were not wearing masks and following social distancing at the airport.
Airlines have started to penalize passengers for not wearing masks in flight.
A senior AAI official said, “The initiative was started three days ago. Staff are deployed on rotation every day. They move in teams of three and remind passengers to wear masks if they find anyone without masks in domestic and international terminals.” He said, “This is a step forward from creating awareness. Many measures are already in place for creating awareness for Covid-19 precautions. There are notices, boards, announcements. Volunteers too have been roped in earlier to spread awareness.”
Periodic awareness programmes are being done. Staff and volunteers from the UN conducted a programme outside the terminals recently.
Though these campaigns are done, people not wearing masks outside the terminals. Many people who come to drop or see off passengers do not wear mask.