Delhi airport wants to increase international traffic capacity by 40-50%

New Delhi: Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL), the operator of India's largest airport, is looking at increasing its international passenger traffic handling capacity by 40-50% in 6-12 months, its top executive said, as domestic airlines expand their services to connect more overseas destinations.

"Currently, nearly 20% overseas traffic at our airport is the transit traffic of passengers going from one international destination to another via Delhi, and this is growing. We are looking at various ways to increase our international capacity by 40-50% in a period of 6-12 months," Videh Kumar Jaipuriar, chief executive officer, Delhi International Airport Ltd said at the CAPA India Aviation Summit 2024.

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Currently, Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport has a maximum traffic handling capacity of around 104 million passengers per annum, including nearly 22 million international passengers and 82-83 million domestic. The airport handled 19.5 million international passengers and 54.2 million domestic passengers in FY24, data from the Airports Authority of India (AAI) showed.

Expansion Plans

While the airport had earlier planned to work on its next masterplan in 2026, it has brought it forward, and has already started working on the next phase of expansion with a focus on overseas connectivity. Under this, the airport is working in collaboration with airlines, especially Air India and IndiGo, which together have an order pipeline of more than 1,400 aircraft, including 100 wide-body aircraft used on long-distance, international routes.

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"We are not closed to options such as dedicated terminals for airlines or even dedicated terminals for international and domestic connections. We get reports from Air India and IndiGo on their aircraft delivery plans," Jaipuriar said.

Jaipuriar is confident of strong growth in international traffic for carriers operating from Delhi airport with the deployment of more wide-body aircraft even on medium-haul routes.

Operational Growth

"Right now, around 50% of international operations at the airport are with wide-body aircraft, but it is important to note that 33% of these are on long-haul routes. So, airlines are upgauging as the passenger demand is increasing," he added.

Upgauging is an aviation industry technique enabling air carriers to increase capacity by adding seats to existing jets and replacing smaller planes with larger aircraft.

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The airport is also expected to have four fully operational runways by July, and is working with AAI and consultants to optimize runway utilization.

"Currently, we have a capacity of 1,500 slots per day. There is a potential to increase this by 500-600 slots per day. On an hourly basis, we see the potential for over 110 aircraft movement (departure and arrival) per hour in the final stage of our runway optimization from a current capacity of nearly 84 movements per hour," he said.

Aviation Advancements

An airport slot is a permission given by a coordinator for a planned operation to use the full range of airport infrastructure necessary to arrive or depart at an airport at a specific time and date.

In line with the broader ambition of the government to set up a global aviation hub in Delhi and to increase passenger convenience, the airport is working on a plan to introduce automated people mover (APM) systems between Terminal 1 and Terminal 3, which currently lack a dedicated medium of access.

"We have done the commercial evaluation of APM. We expect that there will be some funding that will be required. We have made representation (to the government). We will see the overall requirements and may approach the government for a one-time funding support for APM as, ultimately, the infrastructure is owned by the Airports Authority of India and we are just the operator," he added.