Endless queues in front of banks, revenue from finance, Steg, Sonede, the Post Office and especially at the international airport of Tunis-Carthage, the first showcase of the country. Funny situations that cast a harsh light on an administration affected by the gangrene of bureaucracy. The Covid-19 pandemic has only driven the point home by forcing the citizen to show resignation. Pending the effective implementation of digitalization capable of reducing bureaucratic red tape, people everywhere are forced to queue, to lose hours and hours of work.
Tunis-Carthage Airport, a daily ordeal
On departure, arrival or baggage check-in, the Tunis-Carthage airport offers an eternally poor spectacle with travelers running out of patience and civil servants from the airlines who hide their indolence and indifference badly. The trip is much more like a torture marked in particular by long hours in line and bottlenecks at the check-in counters, in front of the customs security gates as well as at the level of the control services of the border and foreign police before the final issue and access to the boarding room. Harassing obstacle course which is explained by the 175% growth in the number of travelers recorded by the national company Tunisair in the first quarter of 2022 against a flagrant lack of border police officers for certain flights, which only lengthens even more queues and arouse the wrath of travellers. For the national union of interior forces, it would rather be a question of a bad organization of flight schedules. ” When we schedule twelve flights in one hour, all travelers inevitably pass in the following moments in front of the border police control counters. “explains the information officer, Anis Ouertani.
« The space is inappropriate and cannot accommodate so many travelers at the same time “, he said during a radio intervention. However, this does not explain the closing, sometimes, of certain checkpoints to the chagrin of travellers. Moreover, the agents are most often overwhelmed and the travelers are on edge with the fear of missing their plane. Guaranteed trauma before boarding. It even happens to see endless queues in front of the access doors inside the airport due to security measures related to the terrorist threats hanging over the country. The Office of Civil Aviation and Airports (Oaca), which is responsible for improving the internal and external environment of airports, is in turn singled out. It is high time today to take action, to take the bull by the horns in order to guarantee the fluidity of travellers’ journeys, especially since the tourist year looks promising. With the arrival of summer in a month, Tunis-Carthage airport will undoubtedly face a peak of activity.
In order to guarantee a smooth journey for passengers, many transport players have already adopted “passenger flow monitoring” solutions which use various technologies including monitoring equipment which makes it possible to monitor passenger flows in real time and to anticipate the risks of high density by taking the necessary measures.
Among the methods recommended by researchers to reduce waiting times in airports, it is worth pointing out the strengthening of human and technological resources, especially to reduce the processing time for passport control. This will contribute to improving the image of our country for tourists as well as for foreign investors.
Post offices and banks… the hassle
In front of banks, post offices, finance revenue counters, Steg or Sonede agencies, the situation is not very different. Whether it’s hot or cold, always these indeterminable queues of citizens armed only with patience. With the approach of holidays, banks and post offices are taken by storm and ATMs cannot keep up with the frantic pace of spending. It is the breakdown after excessive use, when the citizen needs it the most to withdraw cash.
In the absence of a tradition of online payment, in particular for Steg and Sonede invoices, and in the absence of the digitization of certain services provided to citizens, queues have already conquered and masked the rhythm of our lives. The solutions lie in the scientific management of queues and above all in the digitization of administrative services, particularly in the international airport of Carthage, which is the subject of several criticisms as the summer season approaches and the peak of visitors.