‘What’s the point?’: Sanjeev Sanyal questions repeated boarding pass checks; users call airport security a ‘tamasha’

Economist Sanjeev Sanyal recently raised concerns over a common practice at Indian airports — multiple boarding pass checks — that he believes leads to unnecessary bottlenecks. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Sanyal questioned the rationale behind this repetitive process, noting that it is largely absent in other countries.

“A question to anyone who understands airport security,” Sanyal wrote. “A common phenomenon in Indian airports is that one is asked for the boarding card at the boarding gate, and then again 30 seconds later at the aircraft gate. At the latter, some number is manually struck off a chart. What exactly is the point of this, especially with aero bridge boarding?” He further asked if this could be a candidate for process reform.

Sanjay Lazar, who survived the Air India Flight 182 Kanishka terror attack, explained the purpose behind the second check. Responding to Sanyal’s post, he wrote, “If you notice your boarding card carefully, there is what is known as a BOARDING NUMBER. That is the universal identifier for airlines, more than your name or seat number. That is the sequence in which you checked in to the system. When you pass through the final gate, they check all 4 — name, flight number, boarding number, and sector.”

Lazar further detailed how security personnel strike off the boarding number at the aero bridge to ensure passenger reconciliation. He also pointed out that heightened threat perception in India compared to most other countries could explain some of the additional security protocols.

Several users agreed with Sanyal’s criticism, sharing their frustrations with airport security procedures.

“I don’t understand why people are asked to remove laptops from their bags. It’s the biggest bottleneck,” one user commented.

Another questioned the repeated security checks in connecting flights, writing, “In a one-hop flight, we literally move through a ‘bubble’ without going out of security purview. Why do we need another security check at the next airport?”

Siddharth Desai, Joint Managing Director at Kishor Pumps, criticized Indian airport security procedures as outdated and inefficient. “Indian airports also have terrible security apparatus & procedures. Even without upgrading infrastructure, CISF procedures can be streamlined,” he wrote.

Investor and ProMytheUs Co-Founder Abhigyan Jha called the security check process a “tamasha,” lamenting how passengers are forced to virtually unpack their entire bags for screening.