About Delhi Airport

Indira Gandhi Int'l Airport (Delhi Airport) Location
Indira Gandhi Int'l Airport Location

Indira Gandhi International Airport (IATA: DEL, ICAO: VIDP) serves as the primary civilian aviation hub for the National Capital Region of Delhi, India. The airport, spread over an area of 5,106 acres (2,066 ha), is situated in Palam, 15 km (9.3 mi) south-west of the New Delhi railway station and 16 km (9.9 mi) from New Delhi city centre.

Named after Indira Gandhi, a former Prime Minister of India. It is the busiest airport in the country in terms of passenger traffic and international traffic busiest airport in India since 2009. It is the second busiest airport in the country in terms of cargo traffic after Mumbai. With the commencement of operations at Terminal 3 in 2010, it became India's and South Asia's largest aviation hub, with a current capacity of handling more than 62 million passengers. The planned expansion program will increase the airport's capacity to handle 100 million passengers by 2030.

In 2014, the airport handled a total of 39.752 million passengers, registering a 8.4% growth in traffic over the previous year and as of 2015, the airport currently is the 26th busiest airport in the world by passenger traffic.

The airport was operated by the Indian Air Force before its management was transferred to the Airports Authority of India. In May 2006, the management of the airport was passed over to Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), a consortium led by the GMR Group. In September 2008, the airport inaugurated a 4,430 m (14,530 ft) runway. The Terminal 3 building, which commenced operations in 2010, has a capacity to handle 34 million passengers annually. Terminal 3 is the world's 8th largest passenger terminal. The airport uses an advanced system called Airport Collaborative Decision Making (A-CDM) to help keep takeoffs and landings timely and predictable.

In 2010, Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) was conferred the fourth best airport award in the world in the 15–25 million category, and Best Improved Airport in the Asia-Pacific Region by Airports Council International. The airport was rated as the Best airport in the world in the 25-40 million passengers category in 2015, by Airports Council International. Delhi Airport was awarded The Best Airport in Central Asia and Best Airport Staff in Central Asia at the Skytrax World Airport Awards 2015.

Terminals

IGI Airport serves as a major hub or a focus destination for several Indian carriers including Air India, Air India Regional, IndiGo, Jet Airways, SpiceJet, GoAir and Vistara. Approximately 80 airlines serve this airport. At present there are two active scheduled passenger terminals, a dedicated Hajj terminal and a cargo terminal.

Terminal 1

Terminal 1 is currently used by low cost carriers IndiGo, SpiceJet and GoAir.

Terminal 1A

Terminal 1A was built in the early 1990s to cater to Indian Airlines. It had to be refurbished after a fire gutted the interiors and DIAL significantly upgraded the terminal. It was used by Air India Regional until it moved to the new Terminal 3 on 11 November 2010. The terminal is now closed and is expected to be torn down on the completion of newer terminals.

Terminal 1C

Terminal 1C is used only for domestic arrivals. The terminal has been upgraded with a new expanded greeting area and a larger luggage reclaim area with 8 belts.

Terminal 1D

Terminal 1D is the newly built domestic departure terminal with a total floor space of 35,000 m2 (380,000 sq ft) and has a capacity to handle 10 million passengers per year. Terminal 1D commenced operations on 15 April 2009. It has 72 Common Use Terminal Equipment (CUTE) enabled check-in counters, 16 self check-in counters, 16 security channels.

Terminal 2

Terminal 2 was opened on 1 May 1986, at a cost of 950 million, The terminal is currently out of commission.

Terminal 3

Designed by HOK working in consultation with Mott MacDonald, the new Terminal 3 is a two-tier building spread over an area of 20 acres (8.1 ha), with the lower floor being the arrivals area, and the upper floor being a departures area. This terminal has 168 check-in counters, 78 aerobridges at 48 contact stands, 54 parking bays, 95 immigration counters, 15 X-ray screening areas, for less waiting times, duty-free shops, and other features.

This new terminal was timed to be completed for the 2010 Commonwealth Games, which was held in Delhi and is connected to Delhi by an eight-lane Delhi Gurgaon Expressway and the Delhi Metro. The terminal was officially inaugurated on 3 July 2010. All international airlines shifted their operations to the new terminal in late July 2010 and all full service domestic carriers in November 2010.

The arrival area is equipped with 14 baggage carousels. T3 has India's first automated parking management and guidance system in a multi level car park, which comprises 7 levels and a capacity of 4,300 cars. Terminal 3 forms the first phase of the airport expansion which tentatively includes the construction of additional passenger & cargo terminals (Terminal 4, 5 & 6).

Domestic full-service airlines operate from the Terminal 3 including Air India, the national carrier and Jet Airways moved their domestic operations to the new terminal in November 2010. The recently launched Tata & Singapore Airlines airline joint-venture Vistara also operates from Terminal 3.

Terminals 4, 5 and 6

Terminals 4, 5 and 6 will be built at a later stage, which will be triggered by growth in traffic, and once completed, all international flights will move to these three new terminals, while Terminal 3 will then solely be used for handling domestic air traffic. A new cargo handling building is also planned. According to Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), these new terminals will increase the airport's annual passenger volume capacity to 100 million.

Cargo Terminal

The cargo terminal is located at a distance of 1 km (0.62 mi) from T3. It handles all the cargo operations. The airport received an award in 2007 for its excellent and organized cargo handling system.




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