IGI airport aims to handle 109 m passengers annually

The updated master plan of the IGI Airport envisages increasing the passenger handling capacity to 109.33 million passengers per annum in a phased manner, according to the government.

The Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) is operated by Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) -- a joint venture between GMR, AAI and Fraport AG.

In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha yesterday, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha has said development works for the airport include expansion of Terminal 1 and 3, construction of a new Terminal 4 and new runway, among others in three phases starting from 2017 till 2034.

"The updated master plan envisages expansion of passenger handling capacity of IGI Airport from existing 62 million passenger per annum to 109.33 mppa in a phased manner by way of both Airside and Terminal side developments," he said. The development works under the plan are based on traffic triggers, optimum utilisation of capex and other factors.

In a separate written reply, the minister said an inspection found that the runway at Calicut airport is not suitable for wide-bodied aircraft operations.

The joint inspection was done by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) at the Calicut airport in January 2017.

It was done to assess the possibility of wide-bodied aircraft operations at the airport.

"A land requirement of 248.3 acres has been projected to the State Government of Kerala to make Calicut Airport suitable for operations of wide-bodied aircraft," Sinha said.