Indira Gandhi International Airport

Check-in area of domestic departure terminal 1A

Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport (IATA: DEL, ICAO: VIDP), located in the city of New Delhi, Delhi is one of India's main domestic and international gateways. The airport has been named after former prime minister Indira Gandhi, the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru.

Structure

Earlier known as Palam Airport, it was renamed IGI airport with the inauguration of a new international terminal (Terminal 2) on 2 May 1986. The older Palam Airport, now known as Terminal 1, is exclusively used for domestic operations. Terminal 1 has further been divided into three separate terminals - 1A (for domestic flights of state owned Indian), 1B (for all other domestic airlines) and Domestic Arrival Terminal. There is also a separate Technical Area for the use of VVIP movements. Additionally there is a separate Hajj terminal for catering rush during Hajj.

The capacity of Terminal 1 is estimated to be 7.15 million passengers per annum (mppa). However, the actual throughput for 2005/06 was an estimated 10.4 million passengers. Including the international terminal (Terminal 2), the airport has a total capacity of 12.5 mppa whereas the total passenger traffic in 2005/06 was 16.2 million passengers per annum. There is a free transfer shuttle between the terminals.

Delhi Airport has two non-parallel runways: the main runway 10/28 (12,500 ft 3,810 m) and an auxiliary runway 09/27 (9,229 ft 2,813 m). Runway 28 is one of the few runways in Asia and the only one in South Asia equipped with CAT III-B Instrument Landing System. The winter of 2005 witnessed a record number of disruptions at Delhi airport due to fog/smog. Since then some domestic airlines have trained their pilots to operate under CAT-II conditions of a minimum 350 m (1,148 ft) visibility. On 31 March 2006, IGI became the first Indian airport to operate two runways simultaneously following a test run involving a SpiceJet plane landing and a Jet Airways plane taking off at the same time.

As there is an Indian Air Force Base (Hindon) in the flight path of Delhi airport it is necessary for civilian aircraft to make a 5 minute detour to avoid over-flying the military facility. In previous years the IAF used to close Delhi airport for use during annual celebrations to mark its "raising" day. Starting in 2006 such activities will be conducted at Hindon Air Force Base to reduce disruption to civilian air traffic at Delhi airport. This may be a fall-out of the privatization of Delhi airport in early 2006.

Modernisation

Delhi Airport has been going through major upgrades since Fraport, Airport Authority of India, Eraman Malaysia, and GMR Infra. have been granted the contract to manage and build the airport over a 35 year time. Terminal 1A and 2 have all been renovated from new washrooms to new ceilings, to new departure area, to the latest security equipment. With this, the companies have also been constructing the brand new Terminal 3 at Indira Gandhi International Airport. This terminal will cater to both domestic and international passengers until the second phase of construction is done, which will include another new terminal which will cater to only international flights. This terminal will come in place of the old terminals already at the airport. The new Terminal 3 will be a two tier building, with the bottom floor being the arrivals area, and the top being a departures area. This terminal will have over 130 check in counters, 55 aerobridges, 30 parking bays, 72 immigration counters, 15 X-ray screening areas, for less waiting times, duty free shops, and much more. Over 90% of the passengers will use this terminal when completed. The airport will also have a new runway to cater more than 75 plus flights an hour, almost triple then what they do now. The runway will be more than 4400 meters long and one of Asia's longest. This new terminal should be done by the 2010 Commonwealth Games that are to be held in Delhi, and will be connected by a 6 lane highway (National Highway 8), and the Delhi Metro. Terminal 3 will cater to more than 35,000,000 passengers a year.

Terminal 3 would form the first phase of the airport expansion in which a U shaped building would be developed in a modular manner. In 2010, all international and full service domestic carriers would operate from Terminal 3, while Terminal 1 would be developed as an exclusive terminal for low cost carriers. In subsequent stages, the low cost carriers would also move to the new terminal complex. Terminal 4 and 5 will be built later, but once done all International Flights will move to these two new terminals. And a new cargo handing building would be made. Also existing runways will be upgrades and a fourth parallel runway will be built. Once this is all done Delhi Airport will have over 500 check in counters, over 200 aerobridges, 150 immigration counters, restaurants, malls and much more and will be able to handle over 100,000,000 passengers a year.

Also being planned is an aeropolises. Which will include, restaurants, hotels, malls, temples, and much more. The plan is to make the airport to a "city to itself". The Government is investing 12,000 Crore in this project and investors investing over 24,000 Crore. The Airport Authority wants to see a business centre also constructed.

Incidents and accidents

• 25 January 1970 - Royal Nepal Airlines Fokker F27-200 (9N-AAR) after a flight from Kathmandu, was caught in severe thunderstorms with turbulence and down draughts on final approach to Delhi (Palam Airport). The pilot could not control the aircraft and crashed short of the runway. Of the five crew and 18 passengers only one crew member was killed. ^[1]
• On 23 June 1985, Air India Flight 182, which was flying on a Montreal-London-Delhi-Mumbai route, exploded in midair in a suspected act of terrorism, killing all of the passengers aboard.
• On 12 November 1996 the airport was the scene of a disaster when a Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 747, climbing out after take-off, collided with an incoming Air Kazakhstan plane chartered by a fashion company, causing the deaths of all aboard the two planes.
• On Christmas Eve, 24 December 1999, Indian Airlines Flight 814, which had just taken off from Kathmandu, Nepal to Indira Gandhi Airport was hijacked. The plane flew around different points in South Asia and Southwest Asia as officials of the Government of India and the Taliban negotiated. One passenger was killed and some were released. On 31 December, 1999, the rest of the hostages on Flight 814 were freed.

Security hold area of domestic departure terminal 1A

Airlines and destinations

IGI Airport is the home of several Indian airlines including Air Sahara, Indian, SpiceJet, Alliance Air and IndiGo Airlines. Air India, and Jet Airways use IGI Airport as their second hub after Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport. The airport is also a major base for various other Indian air carriers including Kingfisher Airlines, Go Air, Air Deccan and Air Sahara. Currently, 63 airlines service Indira Gandhi International.

Terminal 1 (Domestic)

Terminal 1 serves domestic air carriers linking New Delhi with the rest of India.

• Air Deccan (Amritsar, Bangalore, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jabalpur, Kolkata,Lucknow, Mumbai, Patna, Ranchi)
• Jet Lite (Bangalore, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Dibrugarh, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Kolkata,Lucknow. Mumbai, Patna, Ranchi)
• Air India (Agartala, Agra, Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bagdogra, Bangalore, Bhavnagar, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Dimapur, Goa, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Imphal, Indore, Jaipur, Jammu, Jamnagar, Jodhpur, Jorhat, Khajuraho, Kolkata, Leh, Lilabari,Lucknow, Mangalore, Mumbai, Nagpur, Port Blair, Raipur, Rajkot, Shillong, Silchar, Tezpur, Udaipur, Vadodara, Varanasi, Visakhapatnam)
• Alliance Air (Bangalore, Chennai, Goa, Kolkata, Mumbai, Vadodara, Vizag, Raipur, Bhopal)
• IndiGo Airlines (Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata, Guwahati, Imphal, Mumbai, Jaipur, Hyderabad)
• Jagson Airlines (Dharamshala, Chandigarh, Pantnagar, Kullu, Shimla)
• Jet Airways (Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bagdogra, Bangalore, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Chennai, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Jammu, Jodhpur, Kolkata, Leh, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, Patna, Pune, Raipur, Srinagar, Trivandrum, Udaipur, Vadodara, Varanasi)
• Kingfisher Airlines (Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Coimbatore (via Ahmedabad), Goa, Indore,Jaipur, Kolkata, Mumbai, Hyderabad)
• SpiceJet (Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Srinagar,Jammu, Guwahati, Chennai, Coimbatore, Goa, Varanasi, Bangalore, Bhopal)
• Go Air (Chennai, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad)

Terminal 2 (International)

International carriers operating scheduled services from the Indian capital to the following cities are:

• Aeroflot (Moscow-Sheremetyevo)^[2]
• Aerosvit Airlines (Kiev-Boryspil)
• Air Astana (Almaty)
• Air Blue (Karachi) (Planned, under serious consideration)
• Air China (Beijing)
• Air France (Paris-Charles de Gaulle)
• Air India (Abu Dhabi, Amritsar, Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi, Birmingham, Chicago-O'Hare, Dammam, Dubai, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Jeddah, Kuala Lumpur, Kuwait, Lahore, London-Heathrow, Los Angeles, Lucknow, Mumbai, Muscat, New York-JFK, Osaka-Kansai, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Seoul-Incheon, Shanghai-Pudong, Sharjah, Singapore, Tokyo-Narita, Toronto-Pearson)
  • Air India Express (Amritsar, Colombo, Dubai)
• Air Mauritius (Port Louis)
• Air Sylhet (Dhaka) [Begins December 16, 2007]
• Alitalia (Milan-Malpensa)
• American Airlines (Chicago-O'Hare)
• Ariana Afghan Airlines (Kabul)
• Asiana Airlines (Seoul-Incheon)
• Austrian Airlines (Vienna)
• B&H Airlines (Sarajevo) [Starts March 2008]
• Biman Bangladesh Airlines (Dhaka)
• British Airways (London-Heathrow)
• Cathay Pacific (Hong Kong)
• China Airlines (Taipei-Taiwan Taoyuan)
• China Eastern Airlines (Beijing, Shanghai-Pudong)
• China Southern Airlines (Guangzhou)
• Continental Airlines (Newark)
• Cosmic Air (Kathmandu)
• Druk Air (Kathmandu, Paro)
• Emirates (Dubai)
• Etihad Airways (Abu Dhabi)
• Ethiopian Airlines (Addis Ababa, Beijing)
• Finnair (Helsinki)
• GMG Airlines (Dhaka)
• Gulf Air (Bahrain)
• Iberia Airlines (Madrid) [Starts January 2009]
• Japan Airlines (Tokyo-Narita) [Operated for JALways]
  • JALways (Tokyo-Narita)
• Jazeera Airways (Dubai, Kuwait)
• Jet Airways (Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi, Brussels, Kathmandu, London-Heathrow, New York-JFK [begins October 28], Singapore, Toronto-Pearson)
  • JetLite (Colombo, Kathmandu, Kuala Lumpur, Seoul-Incheon [begins November 2007], Singapore)
• Kam Air (Kabul)
• KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (Amsterdam)
• Kuwait Airways (Kuwait)
• Kyrgyzstan Airlines (Bishkek)
• Kenya Airways (Nairobi) (Date of Commencement Unknown)
• Lufthansa (Frankfurt, Munich)
• Mahan Air (Tehran-Imam Khomeini)
• Malaysia Airlines (Kuala Lumpur)
• Nepal Airlines (Kathmandu)
• Oman Air (Muscat)
• Pakistan International Airlines (Karachi, Lahore)
• Qatar Airways (Doha)
• Royal Jordanian (Amman)
• Saudi Arabian Airlines (Dammam, Riyadh, Madinah, Jeddah)
• Singapore Airlines (Singapore)
• Sri Lankan Airlines (Colombo)
• Swiss International Air Lines (Zurich) [begins November 25]
• Syrian Arab Airlines (Damascus, Sharjah)
• Thai Airways International (Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi)
• Turkish Airlines (Istanbul-Atatürk)
• Turkmenistan Airlines (Ashgabat)
• Uzbekistan Airways (Tashkent)
• Virgin Atlantic Airways (London-Heathrow)
• Xiedu Airlines (Beijing) (Begins soon)

Terminal 3

Currently under construction. Will be complete in 2010. From then on 100% of international traffic and over 50% of the domestic traffic will move to this massive, modern terminal. (For more information please see the modernization section of this article)

Cargo Operators

• Air India
• Air France Cargo
• Alitalia
• Lufthansa Cargo
• Korean Air

Previous Carriers

The following have suspended operations from New Delhi:

• Air Canada (Toronto-Pearson, Zürich) Service was suspended (4/30/07)
• United Airlines (London-Heathrow, Washington-Dulles) This service was suspended after the September 11th attacks and was finally cancelled on October 1, 2001.
• Delta Air Lines (Atlanta) suspended due to lack of success on the route; Delhi was only served for a short period of time. Today, Delta's gateway in India are Mumbai from Atlanta via New York-JFK. The only American carriers serving Delhi today are Continental Airlines from Newark and American Airlines from Chicago-O'Hare.
• Paramount Airways (Chennai)-Domestic operation
• Qantas (Sydney)
• Other carriers that have discontinued operations are El Al (Tel Aviv), SAS Scandinavian Airlines System (Copenhagen), Myanmar Airways, Iraqi Airways, Air Ukraine and Tajik Air. Syrian Arab Airlines also had discontinued operations to New Delhi, however the service was recently revived and has been re-routed via Sharjah.
• Swissair had to discontinue operations to Delhi due to the collapse of the airline. However the new international airline of Switzerland, Swiss International Airlines is beginning a daily service from Zürich to Delhi
• Eurofly

New Airlines

• Swiss International Airlines (Zürich) [begins November 25, 2007]
• Kenya Airways (Nairobi) (Date of commencement unknown)
• Air Blue (Planned, under serious consideration)
• Syrian Arab Airlines (service revived)
• Xiedu Airlines (Beijing) (planned)[1]
• Iberia Airlines (Madrid) (begins January 2009)

Iberia Airlines of Spain is planning to relaunch services to India in 2009 and are planning on flying to Indira Gandhi International. With limited success with opening business in Mumbai Iberia cut off routes to South Asia. However in 2009, Iberia Airlines is planning on commencing a major expansion plan in Asia, adding routes Tokyo and Shanghai and in the second quarter Hong Kong and New Delhi. [2]

Fixed Base Operators (FBO)

Caterers

• Chef Air
• Taj-Sats
• Oberoi Flight Services

Indian executive lounge in domestic departure terminal 1A

Fuelers

• Bharat Petroleum
• Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited
• Indian Oil Corporation

Ground Handlers

• Air India Corporation
• Indian
• Airworks India
• Cambata Aviation
• Concord Aviation Pvt Ltd.

References

1. ^ Aviation Safety Network retrieved 18 November 2006
2. ^ (Russian) Federal State Unitary Enterprise "State Air Traffic Management Corporation", Summer Air Traffic Schedule 25.03.2007 - 27.10.2007 (Airports - Russian international), 29 May 2007, p. 15

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Indira Gandhi International Airport

• Indira Gandhi International Airport at Airports Authority of India web site
• GMR Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL)
• GMR Group
• Delhi Airport Master Plan
• World Aero Data airport information for VIDP
• ASN accident history for DEL

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