Delhi airport's space not used well, show figures

New Delhi: The new terminal 3 or T3 at the Delhi airport may be one of the largest in the world in terms of size but it is not as efficient as its international and domestic peers in space utilisation.
T3 is the largest airport terminal in the country and the eighth largest in the world but its capacity utlisation is only 62 passengers per square metre. This is significantly lower than counterparts such as at London or Bangkok. Terminal 5 at London’s Heathrow, for instance, has a space utilisation of 85 passengers per sq metre. Bangkok has 80 per sq metre.
Among domestic airports, Mumbai caters to 93 passengers every sq metre. The Bangalore and Hyderabad airport figures are 155 and 119, respectively.
According to the master plan, the terminal was to be built over 4,70,000 square metres. The operator, Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL), however, overbuilt the third terminal by 80,000 sq metres, thus bringing down the average capacity utilisation.
DIAL is a joint venture company of the Bangalore-headquartered GMR Group, state-owned Airports Authority of India, Fraport and Malaysian Airport Holdings.
In its defence, DIAL says T3 is a pier-type terminal, similar to Terminal 2 and Terminal 3 of Singapore’s Changi airport, where aircraft are parked on either side of the piers. Hence, it would be unfair to compare average capacity utilisation at T3 with other domestic terminals in the country.
20/12/10 Mihir Mishra/Business Standard

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Categories: Airports Dec 2010