Spread over an area of 5,220 acres (2,112 ha) of land, Delhi airport serves as the primary civilian aviation hub for the National Capital Region of India. It was previously operated by the Indian Air Force until its management was transferred to the Airport Authority of India.[7] In May 2006, the management of the airport was passed over to Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), a joint venture led by the GMR Group, which also has the responsibility for the airport's ongoing expansion and modernisation.
In 2011-12, the airport handled 35.88 million passengers[9] and the planned expansion program will increase its capacity to handle 100 million passengers by 2030.[10] The new Terminal 3 building has had the capacity to handle an additional 34 million passengers annually since the start of the 2010 Commonwealth Games.[11] Terminal 3 is the world's 8th largest passenger terminal.[12] In September 2008, the airport inaugurated a 4.43 kilometre-long runway. 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 Airport Council International.
In 2011, the IGIA was ranked the second-best airport in the world in the 25-40 million passengers category, again by Airport Council International.[14] Also in 2012, the airport was the 27th busiest in the world with 39,887,866 passengers handled, registering a 12.7% growth in traffic over the previous year.[15]
Safdarjung Airport was built in 1930 and was the main airport for Delhi until 1962.[16] Due to increasing passenger traffic at Safdarjung, civilian operations were moved to Palam Airport (later renamed to IGIA) in 1962.[16] Palam Airport had been built during World War II as RAF Station Palam and after the British left, it served as an Air Force Station for the Indian Air Force.
Palam Airport had a peak capacity of around 1300 passengers per hour.[17] Owing to an increase in air traffic in the 1970s, an additional terminal with nearly four times the area of the old Palam terminal was constructed. With the inauguration of a new international terminal (Terminal 2), on 2 May 1986, the airport was renamed as Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA).
On 31 Jan 2006, the aviation minister Praful Patel announced that the empowered Group of Ministers have agreed to sell the management-rights of Delhi Airport to the DIAL consortium and the Mumbai airport to the GVK-led consortium.
On 2 May 2006, the management of Delhi and Mumbai airports were handed over to the private consortia.
Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) is a consortium of the GMR Group (50.1%), Fraport AG (10%) and Malaysia Airports (10%),[20] India Development Fund (3.9%)[20] and the Airports Authority of India retains a 26% stake.
The old airport terminal is now known as Terminal 1 and handles domestic flights for all budget airlines. The terminal is divided into three separate terminals - 1A (for domestic flights of state owned Air India, MDLR and GoAir), 1B (was used by other domestic airlines, now closed and demolished), the Domestic Arrival Terminal (1C) and the newly constructed 1D (now used by all remaining domestic airlines). There is also a separate Technical Area for VVIP passengers. Additionally, there is a separate terminal for Hajj flights.
Owing to the booming Indian Aviation industry and the entry of numerous low-cost private carriers, the airport saw a huge jump in passenger traffic and has failed to cope with the demand. The capacity of Terminal 1 is estimated to be 7.15 million passengers per annum (mppa). However, the actual throughput for 2005/06 was an estimated 10.4 million passengers. Including the international terminal (Terminal 2), the airport has a total capacity of 12.5 million passengers per year, whereas the total passenger traffic in 2006/07 was 16.5 million passengers per year[22] In 2008, total passenger count at the airport reached 23.97 million.
Delhi Airport has two parallel runways and a near-parallel runway: Runway 11/29 (14,794 ft (4500m)) with CAT IIIB ILS on both sides and runway 10/28 (12,795 ft (3,900 m)) as well as an auxiliary runway 09/27 (13,780 ft (4,200 m)). Runway 10/28 and Runway 11/29 are the only two in South Asia to have been equipped with the CAT III-B instrument landing system. In the winter of 2005 there were a record number of disruptions at Delhi airport due to fog/smog. Since then some domestic airlines have trained their pilots to operate under CAT-II conditions of a minimum 350 m (1,150 ft) visibility. On 31 March 2006, IGI became the first Indian airport to operate two runways simultaneously following a test run involving a SpiceJet plane landing on Runway 28 and a Jet Airways plane taking off from Runway 27 at the same time.
The initially proposed method of simultaneous takeoffs caused several near misses over west side of the airport where the centerlines of Runways 10/28 and 9/27 intersect. The runway use method was changed to segregate dependent mode from 25th Dec 2007 which was a few days after the deciding near miss involving a Qatar airways Airbus A330-200 and an Indigo A320 aircraft. The new method involved use of Runway 28 for all departures and Runway 27 for all arrivals. This method which was more streamlined was followed full-time till 24 September 2008.
On 21 August 2008, the airport inaugurated its 3rd runway 11/29 costing INR1000 crore[23] and 4.43 km long. The runway has one of the world's longest paved threshold displacement of 1460m. This inturn decreases the available landing length on Runway 29 to 2970m. The purpose of this large threshold displacement is primarily to reduce noise generated by landing aircraft over nearby localities. The runway increases the airport's capacity to handle 85 flights from the previous 54-60 flights per hour.
The new runway was opened for commercial operations on 25 September 2008. Presently runways 11/29 and 10/28 operate in mixed mode where all low cost carrier and cargo aircraft use 10/28 and the rest use runway 11/29, runway 9/27 used as a taxiway and put in use as a runway only during unavailability of 11/29 or 10/28. Runway 11/29 is the main international airline landing and departing runway. Runway 10/28 as the main domestic airline landing and departing runway.
Trials for simultaneous use of all the runways is expected to start on June 6, 2012. To reduce the stress on the airport's main runway 28/10 during peak hours, all three runways will be operated simultaneously.
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