New Delhi: Operations from Indira Gandhi International Airport’s terminal 2 (T2) may be suspended from next Monday (May 10) as passenger numbers have nosedived during the uncontrolled Covid surge. With almost 20 countries imposing travel restrictions from India in the past few days, some even stopping flights here, the current amount of domestic-cum-international traffic is down to a level that can be handled by T3 alone — like last year.
People in the know say Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) will hold consultations with airlines in the next two-three days. “Most probably we will suspend T2 operations from next Monday onwards. T3 is more than sufficient for the current traffic,” said sources.
Mumbai airport is also handling all passenger flights from one terminal for the same reason.
Delhi Airport’s T2 was reopened for domestic flights last October when domestic air travel had started picking up after being allowed to resume in May-end. T1 is yet to reopen since last March.
The airport was seeing an average of about 1.15-1.2 lakh passengers (domestic and international, both arriving and departing) in past couple of months, before the current surge. Now its footfall have also fallen. The reason: domestic travel has witnessed a sharp drop due to testing requirements by various states. And in the last 10 days, about 20 countries have imposed travel restrictions on India, including suspending flights from here.
04/05/21 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India
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