Major flight disruptions on cards for Delhi airport
Delhi's Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport will temporarily shut down one of its runways for three months to carry out critical upgrades, leading to significant disruptions in flight operations.
As reported by Hindustan Times earlier, the runway 28/10 will be shut for shut down for upgrades.
Providing latest update on the same, Delhi Airport CEO Videh Kumar Jaipuriar on Friday said that the runway shutdown could be for three months, according to news agency ANI.
"Out of the four runways that the Delhi airport has, there is one runway 10/28 that we are planning to shut down for three months because there are upgrades that are required," Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) CEO Videh Kumar Jaipuriar told the news agency.
Due to the activity, about 100 flights are going to be affected overall, of which over 43 flights are going to be rescheduled.
"The new schedule has already been published, and 57 departure flights are going to be cancelled. If you put it in the perspective of the percentage, then overall, for Delhi airport, about seven per cent of the Delhi airport capacity flights will be cancelled," said Jaipuriar.
Also Read | Delhi's heavy rain tears through shade at IGI's T1 arrival forecourt; airport responds
"We also ensure that the cancellations are not something that is impacting in a big way. So, in most of the sectors where we had multiple connectivity, their 8-9 per cent of the connectivity was reduced so that overall that sector does not get impacted badly," he added.
The slashing of services comes after a similar attempt in April led to widespread chaos in flight schedules at the country's busiest airport, forcing authorities to abandon the work, as reported by Hindustan Times.
The April crisis exposed critical coordination gaps in India's aviation ecosystem. Despite being informed well in advance about the runway closure, airlines had not reduced their flight operations, triggering delays that cascaded throughout the country.
Also Read | On World Environment Day, flyers at Delhi airport to get seed balls
The work, which began on April 8, was stopped and the runway reopened on May 5 after Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu intervened following widespread passenger complaints and a parliamentary standing committee expressed concerns over the disruptions.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
India Today
5 hours ago
- India Today
Delhi airport runway closure to affect 200 flights daily for three months
Delhi airport operator DIAL on Friday said 114 flights, accounting for 7.5 per cent of the total daily flights, will be cancelled for three months starting from June 15 due to the closure of a runway for upgradation upgradation works of the runway RW 10/28, that was postponed in May after congestion issues, will now be carried out from June 15 to September 15. The Instrument Landing System (ILS) will be upgraded to make the runway CAT III compliant, which will allow flight operations at low visibility conditions during the fog Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA), the country's largest and busiest airport, handles around 1,450 flight movements daily. It has four runways -- RW 09/27, RW 11R/29L, RW 11L/29R and RW 10/28 -- and two operational terminals -- T1 and T3. T2 is currently closed for maintenance works. Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) CEO Videh Kumar Jaipuriar on Friday said RW 10/28 is not going to be operational, effective June 15, for three months."...we want to upgrade that runway to mitigate any issues or problems that we were facing, especially during the fog season. So for RW 10/28, there are two upgrades that we are going to do," he said at a press conference to him, the average reduction in daily flights during the three-month period will be around 7.5 per cent, and passengers are being informed about the changes well in the (number of) flights which are going to be cancelled are about 114. If you look at it from the right perspective, we have got 1,450 operations (flight movements) in a day. Out of that, about 114 operations (flight movements) are going to be impacted, which is 7.5 per cent," he per DIAL, a total of 200 flights will be impacted -- 114 will be cancelled and the remaining 86 will be rescheduled from the peak to non-peak hours -- during the June 15-September 15 the runway will resume operations from September 15, the completion of the ILS upgrade will be done by November 27, just before the start of the fog season, Jaipuriar CEO emphasised that rescheduling and cancellation of flights are not going to have a major impact, especially since passengers are being informed in have been made to ensure a balanced approach to maintain operational stability and minimise disruptions during the closure of RW 28/10, he the backdrop of certain earlier instances of airlines and the airport operator having differences amid congestion woes, DIAL on Friday stressed that the slot adjustment process was carried out through close coordination among all the of various airlines were also present at the press the RW 10/28 upgradation was planned in April-May this year, and was closed for ILS upgradation on April 8. However, the closure of the runway, easterly winds and congestion impacted flight view of the same, the civil aviation ministry directed resumption of operations from RW 10/28 and postponement of runway works from June 15 to September 15. The revised upgradation schedule was also agreed to by the airlines, DIAL is majority owned by GMR Reel IN THIS STORY#Delhi
NDTV
7 hours ago
- NDTV
Delhi Airport To Cancel 114 Daily Flights For 3 Months Due To Runway Upgrade
New Delhi: Delhi airport operator DIAL on Friday said 114 flights, accounting for 7.5 per cent of the total daily flights, will be cancelled for three months starting from June 15 due to the closure of a runway for upgradation works. The upgradation works of the runway RW 10/28, that was postponed in May after congestion issues, will now be carried out from June 15 to September 15. The Instrument Landing System (ILS) will be upgraded to make the runway CAT III compliant, which will allow flight operations at low visibility conditions during the fog season. The Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA), the country's largest and busiest airport, handles around 1,450 flight movements daily. It has four runways -- RW 09/27, RW 11R/29L, RW 11L/29R and RW 10/28 -- and two operational terminals -- T1 and T3. T2 is currently closed for maintenance works. Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) CEO Videh Kumar Jaipuriar on Friday said RW 10/28 is not going to be operational, effective June 15, for three months. "...we want to upgrade that runway to mitigate any issues or problems that we were facing, especially during the fog season. So for RW 10/28, there are two upgrades that we are going to do," he said at a press conference here. According to him, the average reduction in daily flights during the three-month period will be around 7.5 per cent, and passengers are being informed about the changes well in advance. "So, the (number of) flights which are going to be cancelled are about 114. If you look at it from the right perspective, we have got 1,450 operations (flight movements) in a day. Out of that, about 114 operations (flight movements) are going to be impacted, which is 7.5 per cent," he said. As per DIAL, a total of 200 flights will be impacted -- 114 will be cancelled and the remaining 86 will be rescheduled from the peak to non-peak hours -- during the June 15-September 15 period. While the runway will resume operations from September 15, the completion of the ILS upgrade will be done by November 27, just before the start of the fog season, Jaipuriar said. DIAL CEO emphasised that rescheduling and cancellation of flights are not going to have a major impact, especially since passengers are being informed in advance. Efforts have been made to ensure a balanced approach to maintain operational stability and minimise disruptions during the closure of RW 28/10, he added. Against the backdrop of certain earlier instances of airlines and the airport operator having differences amid congestion woes, DIAL on Friday stressed that the slot adjustment process was carried out through close coordination among all the stakeholders. Representatives of various airlines were also present at the press conference. Earlier, the RW 10/28 upgradation was planned in April-May this year, and was closed for ILS upgradation on April 8. However, the closure of the runway, easterly winds and congestion impacted flight operations. In view of the same, the civil aviation ministry directed resumption of operations from RW 10/28 and postponement of runway works from June 15 to September 15. The revised upgradation schedule was also agreed to by the airlines, DIAL said. DIAL is majority owned by GMR Airports.
Time of India
9 hours ago
- Time of India
Three-Month Runway Closure At IGI May Impact 200 Flights Daily
New Delhi: Flight operations will be impacted at Indira Gandhi International Airport when runway 10/28 is closed from June 15 to Sept 15 for upgradation. However, airport operator Delhi International Airport Limited clarified that only around 200 flights could be impacted daily. It has coordinated with airlines to reschedule 86 flights every day after cancelling 114 daily arrivals or departures during the period. DIAL CEO Videh Kumar Jaipuriar said on Friday that the upgradation work was likely to take around three months but would eventually benefit flyers in the fog season when visibility is reduced considerably. The runway is being closed to make it CAT-IIIB compliant to facilitate operations during dense fog in Delhi's winter. It was first closed for upgrades in April and May, but caused delays of hundreds of daily flights. Worsened by prevalence of easterly winds, which lowered the hourly landing capacity from 42 to 32 flights per hour, the runway had to be reopened to facilitate peak season flights. Delhi airport operates with four runways: 27/9, 10/28, 29R/11L and 29L/11R. DIAL said when runway 10/28 remains closed, runway 29R/11L will handle departures, 29L/11R will manage arrivals and runway 27/9 will serve both arriving and departing flights. During westerly winds, the three remaining runways can accommodate 42 arrivals and 42 departures per hour. However, when easterly winds prevail, the departure capacity remains at 42 per hour while the arrival capacity reduces to 32 per hour. Jaipuriar said Delhi airport handled around 1,450 flights daily, of which around 7.5% could be cancelled in the affected period. Normally, the airport sees an average of 3.5% cancellations. "It is just a little bit more than the normal average. It will not significantly disrupt the operations," Jaipuriar said. He said after consultation with all stakeholders, more flights have been shifted from peak hours to non-peak hours. "The difference is that the last time, we did not reschedule the flights, and there were delays due to the cascading effect," said Jaipuriar. DIAL earlier said that during peak fog season, only 15 flights landed every hour on the only CAT-3B compliant runway, but this upgradation work would double that number. DIAL said flights from big airports wouldn't face a major impact. For instance, the number of arrivals from Mumbai would only reduce from 56 to 54 per day and from Bengaluru, 38 to 36 daily. "The same flights that arrive at an airport fly back. Hence the same number of departures are impacted," Jaipuriar explained. Jaipuriar revealed that every hour of fog disruption took over three subsequent hours for operations to become normal because of safety issues because the space between two flights had to be maintained at a specific level. Get the latest lifestyle updates on Times of India, along with Eid wishes , messages , and quotes !
