After remaining closed for almost 18 months due to the Covid-19 pandemic the T1 terminal of Delhi International Airport is finally going to resume flights operation starting from October 31 onwards, said its operator DIAL on Friday.
It may be noted that the T3 terminal and T2 terminal of Delhi airport have resumed handling flight operations from May 25, 2020, and July 22, 2021, respectively, the GMR group-led DIAL mentioned in a press release.
With the resumption of flight operation from the T1 Terminal, the Delhi Airport will be fully functional.
“After almost 18 months of closure, the operations at T1 terminal will resume with pre-Covid operators, i.e. IndiGo and SpiceJet,” said the statement by Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL).
Terminal 1 of Delhi Airport
Terminal 1 at Delhi Airport is used as a domestic terminal since it is only served by low-cost carriers. Terminal 1 is currently used by low-cost carriers. DIAL is working to expand Terminal 1 and enhance its annual passenger handling capacity from the current 18 million to 30 million by 2022.
Flight Operation From T1 Terminal
The first flight scheduled from T1 after its reopening would be an Indigo flight which will depart for Mumbai at 105 am, it mentioned.
The T1 terminal didn’t handle any flight operation since March 25, 2020, when scheduled domestic flights were suspended for a two-month period due to the coronavirus- argued lockdown.
“With the resumption of the third terminal, Delhi Airport will be functional fully. We’d like to assure passengers that at Delhi airport, they would be in a safe and healthy environment,” said Videh Kumar Jaipuriar, CEO, DIAL.
It’s worth mentioning here that domestic carriers in India are currently operating around 70 percent of their pre-Covid domestic passenger flights within India and near 20 percent of pre-Covid international passenger flights from India.
Domestic Passenger Traffic Continues To Increase
The domestic air passenger traffic grew by 2-3 percent at around 68-69 lakh in September 2021, compared to 67 lakhs in August 2021. The airlines’ capacity deployment for September 2021 was around 54 percent higher than September 2020.
On a sequential basis, the number of departures in September 2021 was higher by 6 percent, as Covid-19 infections demonstrated a downward trajectory.
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