New Delhi: The capital’s IGI Airport may soon have two international terminals. IndiGo, India’s largest airline by domestic market share, has asked Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) to create facilities to handle international traffic at the upcoming expanded Terminal 1 — which has, so far, been all-domestic.
At present, IndiGo flies out of all the three terminals in Delhi (T1, 2 & 3) and has, for a long time, been keen on having all its flights from one place for operational efficiency and passenger comfort.
Comments were sought from IndiGo on this issue and awaited till the time of going to press. “We now fly domestic from all three terminals in Delhi,” the airline's website says. All international flights at IGIA are currently from T3.
T1 expansion work is expected to get completed by this September. “The expansion was planned as an all-domestic terminal. During Covid, work on T1 was slowed down in 2020 and 2021. Subsequently, the rebound in air travel has been beyond what one had anticipated. So, T1 work will be completed as per the origin plan to avoid any delay, given the rise in traffic and, then, clearance will be sought from multiple government agencies concerned to have facilities for international traffic at T1,” a source said.
Sources say it is a matter of time before T1 handles both domestic and international flights, subject to clearances for the latter from varied government agencies.“Eventually, T3 will be for Tata Group airlines (Air India-Vistara and AI Express-AirAsia India combines) and foreign carriers. T1 will handle flights of low-cost carriers, including IndiGo. T2 will handle domestic flights of full-service carriers,” the source said.
In the absence of an automated people mover like an air train, transiting between T1, on one side, and T3/2, on the other, is a major pain point for passengers. It is not uncommon for passengers to reach the wrong terminal and, then, rush to the designated one in time to catch their flight. Having designated terminals, instead of an airline operating from multiple terminals, could help minimise this confusion.
22/05/2023 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India
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