Aviation ministry lists five-point action plan to decongest Delhi airport

A surge in air travel has strained the infrastructure at the country's busiest airport and forced the civil aviation ministry to order a reduction and shifting of peak-hour flights

Crowded entrances and clogged security lanes are now a common sight at the Delhi airport. So are frayed tempers and angry tweets.

A surge in air travel (domestic traffic has clocked over 400,000 passengers for nine consecutive days) has put a strain on the infrastructure at the country’s busiest airport and forced the civil aviation ministry to order a reduction in peak-hour flights. The airport handles over 1,100 domestic and international flights daily.

On Monday, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia took stock of the situation and interacted with airport and airline officials to find out ways to ease congestion. A five-point plan is being explored covering all the problem areas -- entrance, check-in area, security check, immigration, and reduction of peak hour flights (5-9 am). Shifting of peak hour flights from terminal T3 to T2 and T1 is being proposed as a remedy.

On Sunday, domestic airlines flew over 427,000 passengers — the highest since the resumption of flights in May 2020 after the Covid-linked lockdown. This was also higher than the average daily number in February 2020 and December 2019.

In December 2019, when Covid was yet to impact flights, Delhi airport was handling around 200,000 passengers daily (both departing and arriving passengers). Three years later, in the first seven days of this month, it handled an average of 195,775 passengers daily.

So if the number of passengers handled remains more or less the same when compared with the pre-pandemic period, what has changed? According to a source, the number of trays being used on per passenger basis at the security check is substantially higher compared to earlier years, but he did not give a figure.

With winter setting in, passengers carry coats, jackets, and shawls that are required to be removed before frisking. This is a regular feature every winter. But this year the trays are higher in number and the processing of passenger bags by machines is slower. “The choke point is security check,” he said.

To overcome this, additional x-ray machines are being installed at the domestic departure area of T3. “Additional automatic tray retrieval system (ATRS) machines for baggage check will be deployed. Before Covid-19, we had 13 ATRS machines installed. This number has been increased to 16 (10 ATRS plus six conventional x-ray machines) in the past few days. This will be increased further to 17 soon and subsequently to 20,” the ministry of civil aviation said on Monday.

According to Ameya Joshi, founder of aviation blog Network Thoughts, 400,000-plus traffic is being achieved daily, with fewer flights indicating a much higher load factor prior to the pandemic. 

IndiGo, which is the largest domestic airline in the country, is also operating a higher number of 232-seater Airbus A321 aircraft now.

Flights that were earlier handled from T1, too, have been shifted to T3 due to the ongoing expansion of T1. Delhi International Airport Limited said that the number of peak-hour flights, however, has reduced from 22 in the pre-pandemic period to 19 in November.

An airline executive said discussions were on with the airport operator on the reduction and shifting of flights from T3 to the other terminals. The idea is also to ensure that the impact on passengers is minimal given that Delhi sees a lot of connecting traffic. “We do not want to transfer problems from one airport to another,” the executive added.