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  Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport

  IATA/ICAO Code:

  DEL/VIDP

  Country:

  India

  CEO:

  Videh Kumar Jaipuriar

  Passenger Count :

  28,500,545 (2020)

  Runways :

  09/27 - 2,813m (9,229ft) | 10/28 - 3,810m (12,500ft) | 11R/29L - 4,430m (14,534ft) | 11L/29R - 4,400m (14,436ft)

  Terminals:

  Terminal 1 | Terminal 2 | Terminal 3

Aviation recovery in 2022 continues, with Delhi airport registering higher domestic traffic than in 2019. In April, IGI Airport peaked at more than 150,000 domestic passengers on a single day, with daily averages also hovering around the 130,000 mark. As Indian air travelers continue to come back in promising numbers, other airports in India are also expected to report an increase in daily traffic.

More than pre-COVID days

Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport has surpassed the pre-Covid-19 level of daily average domestic traffic ahead of the upcoming summer vacation months. According to data obtained by The Economic Times, the airport’s traffic peaked on April 17th, when more than 150,000 domestic passengers used its facilities.

Even otherwise, more than 130,000 people traveled from Delhi airport every day in the past three months, which is more than the average daily number of passengers in 2019 from January 1st to May 10th. The cities that witnessed the most traffic out of Delhi were Mumbai, Bengaluru, Srinagar, Hyderabad, and Kolkata. An airport official told ET,

"Delhi airport is operating 867 domestic flights a day on average, up from 732 in 2021 and 627 in 2020. The number of passengers has also gone up significantly."

Overall traffic growth fuels numbers

These latest figures are not all that surprising if one has been following the trajectory of aviation recovery in India. Earlier this month, Simple Flying reported that Delhi was the second-busiest airport globally in March based on the number of seats booked to and from the airport. Sandwiched between Atlanta and Dubai airports, Delhi offered around 3,611,181 airline seats compared to 4,422,436 for Atlanta and 3,554,527 for Dubai.

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This was followed by more encouraging numbers when India’s credit rating agency ICRA found that India’s passenger traffic was up by more than 80% year-on-year in April when more than 10 million people traveled within the country.

International traffic also seems to be a factor in pushing Delhi to recovery. Data from the Airports Authority of India (AAI) reveals that international traffic in Delhi increased from 722,431 passengers in February to 983,728 in March. Numbers for April are expected to be even higher, following the resumption of scheduled international flights from March 27th.

Of course, much of it also depends on COVID remaining under control, which it has so far this year, and the ability of the industry to take on further fuel price hikes.

Two new hangars

Delhi airport recently announced a further upgrade to its facilities, receiving two maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) hangars at the general aviation (GA) terminal. Each of these hangars has around 2,000 sqm of floor space and can accommodate six to eight midsize general aviation aircraft.

Operating for the past one month, these hangars have been built primarily to serve business jets and other general aviation aircraft. A Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) spokesperson commented,

“Earlier, GA aircraft and business jets had to travel an 8-10 km stretch, including crossing an active runway, to undergo maintenance at hangars near T1. This often led to wastage of time and fuel. The old hangars at T1 have already been dismantled.”

With the way things are looking, Delhi airport will need all the infrastructure it can get for the busy months ahead.

Source: The Economic Times