Ministry tells Delhi airport to reduce taxiing delays

New Delhi: After several complaints, the civil aviation ministry has asked the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi to find ways to reduce delays in moving passengers to the arrival terminal after their flights land, a problem that is caused by a new runway.
The matter is expected to be discussed at a meeting between the ministry, airports regulator Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the airport operator Delhi International Airport (Pvt.) Ltd (DIAL) on Monday, according to two government officials familiar with the issue. They didn’t want to be named.
Several passengers had complained of having to taxi in planes for at least 20 minutes after touchdown on the new runway, India’s longest, which became functional last year.
A SpiceJet Ltd executive said the airline has started making announcements urging passengers to bear with it for the duration of the taxiing. “There are two kinds of passengers. One with no comments and others who tell the pilot ‘you must be lost, you don’t know where you are going’.”
The executive, who wanted to remain anonymous, said the new 11-29 runway is used for landings and the old 10-28 runway for take-offs, forcing arriving aircraft to taxi some 20 minutes to the old runway before passengers can reach the arrival terminal.
29/05/09 Tarun Shukla/Livemint

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Categories: Airports May 2009