NEW DELHI: The capital’s IGI Airport is the world’s seventh busiest airport, according to the latest rankings issued by UK-based air consultancy firm OAG. The six airports that are ahead of IGIA are Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson, Dubai, Tokyo Haneda, London Heathrow, Dallas Fort Worth and Denver International.Delhi is ahead of Chicago O’Hare, Los Angeles and Istanbul in the list of 10 busiest airports this month in terms of seat capacity deployment by airlines for both domestic and international flights. “Delhi has moved up three places to the seventh place with a 6% increase in capacity this month. Chicago, Los Angeles and Istanbul have all moved down one place to 8th, 9th and 10th, respectively,” OAG says.The Delhi airport, however, still has a significant potential for handling more traffic unlike other constrained airports like Mumbai that are operating at peak capacity. When the start of this month saw serious congestion at Terminal 3, which is IGIA’s only domestic-cum-international terminal, Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) added more passenger frisking and cabin bag X-ray infra by knocking down the VIP lounge and CISF commandant’s office.The airport will soon get its fourth runway, an elevated taxiway to cut taxiing time for aircraft and a bigger Terminal 1. Eventually, the Asiad 1982-era Terminal 2 will be demolished to make way for a new terminal. In 2019, IGIA handled close to 7 crore domestic-cum-international passengers. This number is likely to rise to 10 crore before the end of this decade. Work is on to have an air train link between the different terminals to ensure seamless transfer between T1, T2 and T3, something that is essential for an airport of the size of IGIA.The Centre is working with DIAL, Tata Group airlines led by Air India, IndiGo and other stakeholders to make IGIA India’s first true hub. “Globally, hub airports are dominated by one or two airlines. That was not the case in India so far. We are trying to develop (at IGIA) that with one or two airlines so that we can provide seamless transfers for international to international; international to domestic & vice versa and domestic to domestic passengers. We are trying to progress this as soon as possible to be able to provide wonderful (global connectivity) options to our travellers,” Union aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia had recently told TOI.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/up-three-spots-delhis-igi-airport-is-now-worlds-7th-busiest-airport/articleshow/96379942.cms
