Congested hubs: More effort needed for capacity at Delhi, Mumbai airports

In recently released figures for air traffic in 2017, Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi featured as the seventh most used airport worldwide. The increase in traffic through Delhi’s airport over the past years has been considerable. In 2017, it for the first time handled more than 60 million passengers – in total, 63.5 million flyers passed through Indira Gandhi International Airport’s Terminals 1 and 3. Since 2010, the number of passengers through Delhi has almost doubled, and the number of airlines and destinations have also increased. A growing proportion of that traffic is transit travellers. Meanwhile, India’s other major airline hub, Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai, is dealing with a record number of take-offs and landings, given its runway infrastructure.

Taken together, it is clear that India’s hubs are developing a severe congestion problem. Many passengers landing in Delhi have noted that their plane has been forced to circle for 15 or more minutes because landing slots are so tightly packed. Nor is the experience on the ground pleasant, particularly at Delhi airport. During peak hours, airport infrastructure, including security arrangements, is visibly strained by the numbers.

Given the expected growth in passenger numbers, it is clear that India’s civil aviation planners missed a trick in not planning for additional capacity the moment the renovated Delhi airport opened less than a decade ago. The delays in implementing plans for Mumbai’s second airport also must bear a significant share of the blame. The previous United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre insisted on ever more constrictive environmental requirements for the second airport – most of which have now been diluted. In other words, the airport planning was merely delayed and not improved. Nor has the current government demonstrated sufficient urgency. In fact, much effort has been spent on planning a network of regional airports, overlooking the fact that any hub-and-spoke system is only as efficient as its hubs. Some movement is finally visible, with Terminal 2 at Delhi airport now being pressed into service as an additional processing point for travellers on low-cost airlines. Plans have also been released for a new runway. Of course, questions will emerge over time about how the costs of any improvements are to be shared among the state, the concessionaire and passengers. These should be settled equitably and not serve as a reason to hold up work.

Going forward, it is clear that additional ways of creating capacity in both Delhi and Mumbai must be considered. Work on a second airport within range of the National Capital Region must be expedited. Of course, it is crucial also that the local connectivity associated with any new airport be prioritised or the new airport will prove useless. This will require close coordination between the various authorities in Delhi, the civil aviation ministry, and the Uttar Pradesh state government. Meanwhile, Mumbai should not wait only for the new airport, but look into ways of expanding its current airport as well. Methods of recovering, with compensation, areas that have been encroached on by dwellings in the neighbourhood of the airport and using them to expand runway and passenger-handling capacity should be investigated.