• Living up to the passengers’ recognition as World # 1 airport, Hyderabad Airport launches a new programme of Passenger-centric initiatives
• First initiative under the new programme to see deployment of dedicated Passenger Service Associates (PSAs) available at the terminal for assisting passengers

GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd. (GHIAL), which operates Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA), Hyderabad, has announced that it has launched a new programme “Passenger is Prime (PIP)” - an innovative and first-of-its-kind programme, which would see a host of new initiatives and measures aimed at delivering an enhanced level of experience and service to the passengers using the Hyderabad Airport. Working under the motto of ‘One Family – One Mission’ the entire Hyderabad Airport family including airlines, government & regulatory agencies such as CISF, Customs & Immigration and various other service providers are all supporting the airport’s latest passenger centric ‘Passenger is Prime’ programme and all the stakeholders will be working together to offer a number of new initiatives in the coming days focused on delivering enhanced passenger experience at Hyderabad Airport.

In the first initiative under this new programme, the airport is deploying a dedicated team of young Passenger Service Associates (PSAs), available across the airport to assist and support passengers. A team of more than 50 young and enthusiastic PSAs are being deployed across key touch points within the terminal, always ready to reach out to passengers to help in their journey through the airport. These PSAs will play the role of passenger evangelists and they will also provide special assistance to passengers with special needs such as expecting mothers, ladies travelling alone, women travelling with infants, senior citizens and passengers with reduced mobility among others.

The staff chosen as PSAs have been provided with special training under the aegis of Ramakrishna Math, Hyderabad on service orientation in order to help them better understand the needs of passengers and proactively provide immediate assistance whenever required. Easily identifiable in their turquoise green t-shirt with ‘Passenger is Prime’ & ‘Happy to Help’ engraved on the back, these PSAs will be available at points such as the check-in area, security check area, transfers area and security hold/boarding area among others. Depending on the feedback from the passengers, the initiative may be scaled up to cover more areas within the airport with the increased number of PSAs in the days to come.

Speaking at the launch of this unique programme, Mr. SGK Kishore, CEO, GHIAL, said, “We are committed to providing best in class services to the passengers at Hyderabad Airport. ‘Passenger is Prime’ is a concept which captures our entire philosophy and focus on passenger experience. Our relentless focus on the needs of the passengers has helped us reach and retain a position among the Top 3 airports globally in Airport Service Quality (ASQ) for 8 years in a row and in the latest rankings, we have been ranked World No 1 in our category globally, which we see as a clear testimony to the faith and appreciation that our passengers have reposed on our Hyderabad Airport. Over the past couple of years, the growth in passenger traffic has been really robust, and the annual traffic through Hyderabad Airport has increased by around 45% in just 2 years, which is unprecedented and unparalleled.

In this backdrop, we have already initiated steps to expand the airport’s capacity significantly, and the construction work is expected to begin in the next couple of months. At the same time, we have also taken a number of measures to help improve the passenger experience & service quality at the airport, such as the reconfiguration of domestic security check area with enhanced throughput capacity, hassle-free and quick E-boarding facility on a majority of domestic flights and widening of departure & arrival ramps for better vehicular movement among others. The ‘Passenger is Prime’ programme is a natural progression of our continued focus on improving passenger experience at the airport, and we intend it to be the common platform for a host of new passenger-centric initiatives to be launched by various stakeholders who are a part of the Hyderabad Airport community”

Speaking further, Mr. Kishore said, “As the first initiative under the ‘Passenger is Prime’ programme, we have deployed a team of Passenger Service Associates (PSAs) with the specific objective of addressing the spoken as well as unspoken requirements of passengers at the airport. Many travellers, especially those who are not frequent flyers or those with special needs, sometimes find it challenging to navigate through the many steps involved in modern air travel and they often encounter moments of anxiety during their journey. Keeping this in mind, we have inducted a team of highly motivated young professionals who are intuitive, empathetic and willing to go the extra mile for making our passengers’ journey through our airport a pleasant and hassle-free experience. Going forward, we will collaborate with other key stakeholders such as airlines, Customs, CISF and Immigration to launch more such initiatives designed to make the passengers’ journey through our airport a more safe, secure and pleasant experience”

Annexure

To cater to the fast growing passenger traffic, GHIAL has taken various measures at the airport recently. Several out of the box and innovative measures are being taken at the airport to streamline passenger’s flow at the terminal.

• Reconfiguration of domestic security check area has been done along with the increase in number of X-ray machines and security check lanes for domestic passengers have been increased by 40% to serve more passengers effectively.


• Dedicated security check lanes for passengers with only hand baggage passengers are being created which will provide for quick and smooth security check for flyers without any checked-in baggage.


• E-boarding facility is already available for domestic passengers with almost all domestic airlines integrated with the system. Hyderabad Airport also has the privilege to be India’s first airport to have implemented end-to-end e-boarding facility.


• Departure ramp of the airport has been widened to accommodate more vehicles. Now the ramp has four lanes for better traffic management. The deployment of extra man power round the clock at both departures and arrivals has led to smoother traffic flow during peak hours.


• Forecourt area of the terminal at both arrivals as well as departures level has been widened and enhanced for improved passenger and visitors movement.


• With the view to facilitate quicker entry of the passengers inside the terminal and reduce the queuing up at the departure gates, the airport has opened a central gate at the departure terminal. With this, now the airport has 3 departure gates with multiple entry lanes – this has led to better passenger management during the peak hours.


• Renaming of the boarding gates has been done for the benefit of passengers to increase the ease of locating the designated boarding gate. The existing 12 domestic boarding gates have been renamed starting from 101 to 112 contributing to ease of way finding and enhanced passenger experience.


• The paid porter services at the terminal has also been upgraded. Now a team of well-groomed 12 paid porters are available round the clock at both departures and arrivals to help passengers with their luggage. New barcode tickets have been introduced to keep track of the porters’ movement at the terminal, thus enhancing their operational efficiency multi-fold. These paid porters can be easily identified with their orange uniforms.


• Working together, Hyderabad Airport and TSRTC have introduced new and comfortable low-floor Volvo buses on the 02 busy Pushpak Airport Liner routes replacing the old Tata Marco polo buses. TSRTC has started operation of 07 Volvo buses on B1 route (JNTU-RGIA-JNTU) and 05 buses on A2 route (Secunderabad-RGIA-Secunderabad). With the introduction of these new buses, the passengers’ experience on their journeys to and from the airport has been enhanced substantially.


• The airport has also installed 2 CUSS (Common Use Self Service) machines at Airport Novotel Hotel. This is a first of its kind facility which any Indian airport has provided to any Indian hotel for the benefit of passengers. Now the guests at the hotel who are flying from Hyderabad Airport can do the check in before they check out from their hotels. This is an endeavour to make the passengers’ visit to the airport comfortable and convenient.

About GHIAL

GMR Hyderabad International Airport Limited (GHIAL) is a joint venture company promoted by the GMR Group (63%) in partnership with Government of India (13%), Government of Telangana (13%) and Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (11%). The Company was incorporated to design, finance, build, operate and maintain a world class Greenfield airport at Shamshabad, Hyderabad. Hyderabad airport was commissioned in a record time of 31 months in March 2008, with a capacity of 12 million passengers per annum (MPPA). The Project has the flexibility to increase capacity to accommodate over 40 MPPA and shall be developed in a phased manner.

For Further details, please contact:

Anindita Sinha
Head - Corporate Communications, GHIAL
E mail: Anindita.Sinha@gmrgroup.in

Prashant Kumar
Corporate Communications
E mail: prashant.kumar@gmrgroup.in