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| Domestic travel from T3 only from Oct 28 |
| Mihir Mishra / New Delhi Sep 03, 2010, 00:38 IST |
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Domestic passengers using the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi will be able to use the new Terminal-3 (T3) only from October 28, a few weeks after the Commonwealth Games are over. The Games will conclude on October 14.
The civil aviation ministry believes that the new terminal will not be able cater to the increased passenger numbers, if the domestic flights shift to T3.
“If the domestic flights shift, T3 will not be able to cater to the increased number and affect the experience of the overseas travellers coming for the Games. It has now been decided to shift the operations from October 28,” said a ministry official who did not want to be identified.
Full-service carriers like Air India, Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines, along with their low-cost subsidiaries JetLite and Kingfisher Red, were to shift to the new terminal first by mid-July and then by August-end.
This shift was deferred after Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel visited T3 last month and found out that the terminal was not capable of handling domestic operations. The date was then extended from August 27 to a date which was to be decided after a review in mid-September.
There have been several hiccups like the absence of uninterrupted power supply to meet the extra electricity requirement arising out of the added domestic operations. The quality of power supply is erratic, affecting the sophisticated baggage-handling and security equipment at T3.
The low-cost carriers — IndiGo, GoAir and SpiceJet — were to continue operating their domestic operations from the current domestic terminal (Terminal 1D) till March next year.
International operations at the terminal, which were shifted from the end of July, continue to face problems with aerobridges and luggage-handling system.
An airport source said the problem with aerobridges had become frequent because of issues with the biometric device installed for entrance.
“The biometric device asks for an access code after the card is flashed. But the problem appears when it does not accept the code and you have to call the airport employees to fix it. And the problem has become quite frequent,” said an airline employee working at the airport.
One needs a card and an access code to fix the aerobridge in the aircraft. Delay in access delays the fixing of aerobridges and everything that follows.
The airport operator had carried test flights to prove the capability of the airport. On July 14, the earlier date of starting international operations, seven arrivals and departures took place. The next day, the world’s biggest passenger aircraft, Airbus 380, had arrived at the airport for a trial flight, a first for India.
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