Back in December, on a trial basis, the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security in India notified stopping of Hand Baggage Stamping. The trial seems to have gone well, and it has given the BCAS to repeal the requirements to stamp hand baggage on entering the secure holding area with immediate effect. The notification was issued on February 23, 2017.
Now, if you are departing from the following airports in India, you shall no longer require to have a stamp on your bags for denoting they have been checked from a security perspective. The airports are:
- Mumbai (BOM)
- Delhi (DEL)
- Cochin (COK)
- Bangalore (BLR)
- Hyderabad (HYD)
- Ahmedabad (AMD)
- Kolkata (CCU)
All these airports have already completed trials at various points of time, and are now ready to run this full time. Last time around, the stamping was stopped only for Domestic segments, but going by the order, it seems that all sorts of flights from these cities will stop getting stamps on the baggage tag.
However, does not seem this is fully implemented in practice. I flew out of Mumbai on Feb 23, and my bag was stamped. I flew out of Delhi on Feb 24, and my bag was stamped again. Not sure where the disconnect is. I’ll report back when I fly out of one of these airports again.
Bottomline
Over a period of time, I’ve grown used to arriving much ahead of time to go through security. This should be some respite and a small cut down in the process will help.
As of 27th Feb morning they were still stamping at delhi airport. When the check in counter staff at jet handed me a baggage tag, I asked her hasn’t this been stopped. She said nope and that they have no communication regarding this either.
Just did chennai Singapore, chennai still insists on stamped tags. Old habits die hard !
Going to delhi from Bombay as I type. They still stamping !
26 Feb, Just came back from Delhi, still stamping 🙁
that’s a relief … one time i reached the gate with no stamp (security’s mistake) and they sent me all the way back to security.