Domestic passengers flying out of Coimbatore, Indore, Kolkata and Vadodara will no longer need to tag their hand baggage.

Earlier this year, the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) decided to do away with baggage tags at domestic airports, starting with the metro cities.

Up until then, it was mandatory for passengers flying out of all Indian airports to tag their cabin bags at the time of check-in. These are stamped during security screening, and checked again by an airport official before boarding the flight. If the tag isn’t stamped, passengers have been sent back to get one.

The aim is to have the passengers’ details written on the tags to enable security personnel to contact owners of suspicious bags. However, since passengers haven’t been entering their details on the tags, and nobody checks this, the practice is redundant.

This has been replaced with increased surveillance at airports through CCTV cameras, and a more organised deployment of security personnel.

Kumar Rajesh Chandra, DG BCAS said, “The airport operator shall ensure that the requisite monitoring system and supporting infrastructure are maintained all through at pre-embarkation security check points.”

From April, domestic passengers flying out of Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata and Mumbai no longer needed to get their baggage tags stamped. Thereafter, airports in Chennai, Guwahati, Jaipur, Lucknow, Patna and Trivandrum followed suit from June.

Eventually, BCAS plans to scrap the stamping of baggage tags at all domestic airports that fall under the purview of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF). It is likely to happen by the end of this year or latest by the first quarter of next year.

International passengers flying out of all Indian airports will still need to get their cabin bags tagged and stamped.