The operator of India’s busiest hub, Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport, is back to the drawing board to come up with ways to effectively manage increasing international traffic. With the impending closure of T2 following the expansion of T1 later this month, Videh Kumar Jaipuriar, CEO of Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) on Friday announced that all options were being considered. These include allocating dedicated terminals to airlines, with IndiGo and Air India getting significant fleet orders, or separating terminals based on international and domestic flights, he said.
“Our current capacity (T1 + T2 + T3) is approximately 10.4-10.9 crore passengers per annum (CPA), of which 2.2 crore is international, with only T3 handling overseas flights. Last year we carried just under 2 crore international passengers and now we are facing a capacity crunch. Considering that international traffic is growing at an annual rate of 8-10% and the number of domestic and international transfers is increasing, we need to expand our capacity for international flights,” Jaipuriar said at a CAPA event on Friday.
In the short term, two options are being considered that could be implemented within six to twelve months: converting T2 into a fully international terminal or transforming a domestic pier into T3 to handle international flights. No final decision has been made yet on which path to take, he said.
“The transition from T2 to the expanded T1 will take place in phases, starting after we receive security clearance later this month. We plan to complete this process within two months, with intervals of about 15 days between each phase,” he said. airline IndiGo has reportedly expressed concerns over this arrangement as it would result in all its international flights operating from T3 and all domestic flights from T1, once the transition from T2 is completed. Conversely, AI Group will operate international as well as most domestic flights from T3, according to IndiGo. “The entire burden of transferring passengers between the distant T1 and T3 will fall on IndiGo when T2 closes. We have proposed to DIAL to either fully relocate to T1 by adding an international wing there or allow us to operate some domestic flights from T3,” sources familiar with the matter said. Jaipuriar did not comment on the matter. In preparation for the transfer of passengers between T1 and T3, DIAL plans to use buses for cross-city transfers, in the absence of an air train or an automatic people mover (APM). aviation group. For example, passengers traveling from Patna to Istanbul via Delhi via IndiGo will not need to collect their luggage from T1 for the domestic to international leg of their journey. If customs clearance is required, we work with government agencies for returns to streamline the process,” said Jaipuriar.
To accommodate transfer traffic, DIAL is building a hotel outside T3 and is investigating the possibility of a similar setup in the parking lot outside T1.
Aerocity is part of the Delhi Airport complex and is undergoing significant expansion by Bharti Reality, becoming a destination in its own right. “We are now seeing people flying to Delhi, staying at an Aerocity hotel for meetings and then flying back home, sometimes on the same day. The hotels here are experiencing 90% occupancy. The retail space will expand from 18 million sq ft to 3 crore square meters, Aerocity will be a major commercial hub,” said Jaipuriar.
