Delhi airport set to get busier

With a flight taking off or landing from one of its three runways every 55 seconds during peak hours, Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) is the busiest and buzziest in the country.

This month, the airport has witnessed an average daily flight movement of 1,035, with the peak reached on November 6, with a record breaking 1,082 air traffic movement.

This, however, could only be the beginning for the airport to find itself in the august company of one of the world’s busiest airports such as London’s Heathrow.

“Delhi went past the Mumbai airport some while ago by handling many more passengers and flight movements and the gulf has only widened. By next year, we might even overtake London Heathrow airport (average daily movement of 1,400),” said a senior air traffic control official who didn't wish to be named.

Unlike the airport of the country’s financial capital, space is not a constraint at IGIA, which is spread over 5,100 acres.

The Delhi airport already has three runways, which can operate simultaneously. A fourth runway is just a few years away if you believe the plans of the private airport operator, Delhi International Airport Ltd. (DIAL).

Two years ago, Delhi airport reached the record of 75 flight movements in an hour.

At present, that figure is almost a daily occurrence during peak hours with the highest recorded movement being 78 in an hour.

According to sources at the airport, IGIA already has the capability of handling 80 to 85 flight movements an hour.

According to highly placed sources, one of the major changes in recent time has been minimising the voice contact between pilots and air traffic control officials, which used to take a lot of time.

At present, most of the information and clearances are shared online and reaches aircraft cockpit directly and most international and many domestic airlines are using the system.

“Despite the huge increase in number of flights in the last two years and more expected in the coming time, air traffic management has become much more smooth and faster thanks to the new systems and procedures in place,” said a senior air traffic control official.

“The ‘routings’ are now standardised and air traffic officials don't have to explain the entire route to each pilot anymore. For example, instead of directing the pilot on which taxiways to take and then take which route to reach their allotted parking bay, they simply tell them to take route 1 or 2 or so on. This has helped in reducing a lot time, which helps in handling more flights in the same given time,” he said.

“The coming days are only going to get busier and flights keep increasing, thanks to the push given to regional connectivity, we might be even counted amongst the busiest airports in the world,” he said.

IGIA sees record number of flights, pips Mumbai airport

 Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) created a new record this month and marched ahead of all Indian airports.

The airport witnessed 1,082 flight movements a fortnight ago, the highest-ever for any civil Indian airport and also saw a daily average of 1,035 movements this month.

The Delhi airport is now the busiest airport in the country, in both the categories of air traffic movement and passenger traffic.

It has long overtaken the Mumbai airport by not only catering to more passengers (40.99 million compared to Mumbai's 36.63 million in 2014-15) but also handling many more flights, which apart from scheduled commercial flights, also includes chartered flights, VIP flights and helicopter movements.

Delhi airport has been able to handle increasing number of domestic and international airlines and flights thanks to its three runways (28/10, 29/11 and 27/09) that often operate simultaneously. IGIA also holds the record for handling more flight movements per hour, which oscillates between an average of 65 per hour to 75 per hour during peak traffic hours.

According to officials of the Delhi air traffic control, the steep hike in number of flights in November was thanks to the movement of many chartered flights during the Bihar elections, couple with the ongoing festival season.

“The number of flights from Delhi has increased substantially in the last few months and the number of general aviation flights (chartered flights) has gone up too,” said a senior air traffic control official who didn't wished to be named.

“There was a dip in number of flights couple of years ago when Kingfisher Airlines stopped operating but with new domestic and international airlines starting their flights, the number has gone up than before,” he said. “The new aviation policy of the government also proposes more regional connectivity, which would also mean more number of flights. We are already looking at handling 1,200 flights a day very soon and perhaps even handle more flights than London's Heathrow airport,” he said.

The airport witnessed a record number of 1,082 flight movements on November 6 but that was not a standalone figure. Except for two days, the airport has seen more than 1,000 flight movements this month till date, with an average of 1,035 a day. This includes more than 1,070 flight movement on three days.

Airport Express Metro Line takes off

Ridership on the Airport Express Metro Line (AEML) has once again shown an upward trend. Thanks to the second fare reduction in just two months, the high-speed corridor has witnessed a 28.5 per cent spike in ridership.

In fact, such has been the turnaround that the line has witnessed an increase of 196.5 per cent ever since the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) took it over in 2013.

The DMRC, on September 18, had slashed fares on the AEML by up to 50 per cent bringing the minimum single-journey fare on the line to Rs 10 from Rs 20.

“Within just a month of the fare reduction, average ridership on the airport line had increased by 28.5 per cent. From having an average ridership of 23,231 for the quarter of June to August, the number has increased to 29,862 for the month of October alone. It’s good that more people are using the line not just to reach the airport, but also for daily commute,” said a metro official.

If October’s ridership is compared to that of the same month of last year (17,155) then the surge is as much as 74 per cent.

However, the corporation is also facing the brunt for reducing the fare as it continues to suffer a loss on the line.

“The loss of earning, especially in the first 15 days since the new rates were implemented has been around 28-30 per cent. But, that is expected and with time it will be recovered,” said officials. The operating ratio of the line, which means the total working expenses to earning, of the metro corridor has come down from 2.7 to 1.08 despite a total 66.6 per cent slash in fares.

While primarily attributing it to the fare revision, officials said that the move of smart card inter-portability between the Airport Express Line and other corridors, and increasing frequency of trains have contributed in driving up ridership.

“Apart from the fares, the timings of the first service of the day was rescheduled from 5.30 a.m. to 4.45 a.m. from New Delhi and Dwarka Sector 21 to connect with trains of the Indian Railways. Total daily train trips on the corridor have also been increased to 168 from 148 — upping the frequency on the corridor from 15 minutes to 10 minutes and 30 seconds during peak hours,” added the official.

Records of the Delhi metro also indicated that immediately after the fares were cut, the ridership went up by 22.5 per cent. “For the period June 1 to September 17, average ridership of Airport Express Line was 23,644. On September 18 rates were reduced. So, from September 18 to October 31, the ridership was recorded at 28,970,” added the official.

DMRC took over operations of the Airport link, also known as Orange Line, in July 2013 after Reliance Infrastructure’s subsidiary Delhi Airport Metro Express Private Ltd (DAMEPL) terminated its concessionaire agreement.