Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) CEO Videh Kumar Jaipuriar on Friday said the Delhi airport would cross the pre-pandemic passenger traffic level at more than 70 million this fiscal year. Jaipuriar added he expects to complete the expansion of Terminal 1 by the end of February next year which will increase the domestic air passenger handling capacity by 23 million.
Also, Terminal 2 (T2) will be converted into an international terminal for a short term. Currently, T2 is for domestic flights and has a passenger handling capacity of 15 million.
DIAL operates the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) in Delhi which is the country's largest airport.
Currently, the airport has three terminals -- T1, T2 and T3 -- and depending on traffic trends, the operator will take a decision on having T4.
What did the DIAL CEO say about the T4 project?
He said as part of the 2016 master plan, T4 is supposed to be developed with a capacity of around 40 million. According to the master plan, T4 will be fully domestic. T3 getting converted fully into international and T1 being completely domestic, Jaipuriar added. At present, only T3 has international operations.
"This (financial) year, we are going to end up (with) higher than pre-Covid (passenger traffic level). We had a maximum of 69. 3 million passengers during pre-Covid. Last (financial) year, we did 65. 3 million and this financial year, we will cross 70 million," he said.
Out of the total, over 52 million will be domestic passengers and around 18 million will be international passengers.
He said, "DIAL will also revisit its master plan for the airport that was prepared in 2016 and the current capacity levels are based on that plan."
Once the expansion of T1 is complete, the terminal's passenger handling capacity will increase from 17 million to 40 million.
"Then, we will have an overall domestic capacity of 40 million in T1 and 25 million in T3. (Currently), the domestic capacity at T2 is 15 million," he said and added that the international passenger handling capacity at T3 is around 20 million.
From the projections, he said, "we are very comfortable with domestic capacity but we are going to be tight in two years from now (when it comes to) international capacity".
According to the DIAL chief, the plan is that instead of being a domestic terminal, T2 will be converted into an international terminal for a short term.
On T2 conversion, Jaipuriar said DIAL still has to do the stakeholders' consultations.
The airport handles around 1,500 flight movements daily.
DIAL, a consortium led by GMR Group, is also taking various measures on the sustainability front and aims to become a net-zero carbon emission airport by 2030.
(With PTI inputs)
