Delhi airport sees less passenger traffic than capacity: Govt

Amid plans to set up a second airport in the National Capital Region, the government today said passenger and cargo traffic at the Delhi international airport is "well below" the available capacity.
The Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) here is operated by Delhi International Airport Pvt Ltd (DIAL), a joint venture between GMR Group and Airports Authority of India (AAI).
In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma said DIAL has done the modernisation and upgradation in accordance with the Master Plan. It has the capacity to handle 62 million passengers and 1.5 million tonne cargo per annum.

"As the present passenger and cargo traffic is well below the installed capacity, there is no requirement of airport expansion at present," he said.
Sharma was responding to a query on whether the expansion of Delhi airport is likely to be delayed due to losses and under utilisation of the existing capacity.
In 2014-15, passenger traffic at the airport touched 40.9 million. During the same period, cargo traffic was just 0.7 million.

The government has approved setting up a second airport in the NCR.
"It was decided by the government on June 26 that another airport has to be set up in the national capital region in the future as Delhi airport would be choked by that time.

"On July 6, a meeting in this regard was held with the Civil Aviation Minister (Ashok Gajapathi Raju) and on July 10, an in principle decision in this regard was taken for setting up another airport in NCR," Sharma had said on July 23.
To a separate query, Sharma today said after implementation of the public private partnership project at Delhi airport, the losses were incurred by the operator on account of huge investment made for infrastructure expansion and modernisation.
"Further, the cost of depreciation has also gone up in the light of new Companies Act, 2013," the Minister said.