Delhi airport’s plan to expand Terminal-1D seems to have hit a fresh hurdle after the Central government failed to convince domestic airlines to shift their flight operations to Terminal-2 to begin expansion work at the overcrowded Terminal-1D.
Availability of slots
“We need to have a clear understanding of the [plane] slots availability before we make a significant decision related to T-1,” Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said at a press conference here on Thursday.
He said the current master plan of the Delhi airport had envisaged reducing T-1’s annual capacity from 20 million passengers to 10-15 million passengers by asking airlines to move to T-2 while expanding T-1’s capacity.
“Another way of doing it prudentially is to build Terminal-4 very quickly, expand capacity in T-3 and move everyone [all airlines] to T-4 at once,” Mr. Sinha said.
The Minister acknowledged that Delhi T-1 was overcrowded with the terminal handling 24 million passengers against its capacity of 20 million passengers annually. “In peak hours, there is overcrowding in T-1 and we do recognise that,” Mr. Sinha added.
The GMR-led Delhi International Airport (P) Limited (DIAL) recently asked low-cost airlines IndiGo, SpiceJet and GoAir to shift their flight operations to Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kolkata to T-2 from T-1D, out of which they operate presently.
DIAL wanted these airlines to split their operations beginning February so that expansion works of T-1D can begin.
No consensus
However, the airlines declined to shift part of their operations to T-2, failing which the Central government stepped in and held several round of meetings with both the Delhi airport and the airlines. The government failed to reach a consensus each time.
The master plan of the Delhi airport is being re-evaluated and the Minister said that the United Kingdom-based NATS has been examining how to increase air-side capacity in the next two to three years.
