After a two-month hiatus owing to the second phase of COVID 19, Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), a GMR Group-led consortium that manages Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA), announced on Saturday that flight operations at Terminal 2 would resume on Thursday, July 22, 2021.
100 departures and 100 arrivals
The restart of operations at T2 will begin on July 22 with around 200 air traffic movements every day (100 departures and 100 arrivals), gradually increasing to about 280 by the end of August. The first plane to take off will be an Indigo flight destined for Kolkata, which will take off at 3 a.m.
T2 will reopen with about 200 air traffic movements, evenly distributed between departures and arrivals. Around 27 counters operated by commercial airlines IndiGo’s 2000-2999 series flights and GoAir’s complete operations would be permitted to open to serve passengers.
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About 27 counters will be available to serve passengers on different flights, 11 for GoAir and 16 for IndiGo. In the first phase, they expect roughly 25,000 passengers to pass through.
According to a Delhi airport official, the airport was handling the largest number of passenger footfalls of over 120,000 per day in February this year, as both domestic and international aircraft were in operation, the most since the Covid-19 epidemic in March ended last year. The second wave of COVID 19 reduced this number to 30,000 persons. The number of people handled has increased again, with 60,000 passengers handled every day.
On October 1 of last year, the T2 terminal began handling flight operations. Because of the second Covid-19 wave, the terminal was closed in May due to a considerable decline in the number of passengers. During this time, Terminal-3 was in charge of all flight operations.
According to the report, the Delhi airport decided to open Terminal 2 (T2) due to a gradual increase in passenger footfall following the introduction of many states’ travel laws in June of this year.
“Delhi airport is already ready to restore T2 for domestic flight operations after the recent shutdown because of the second wave of Covid-19,” DIAL CEO Videh Kumar Jaipuriar stated. We want to reassure passengers that they will be in a safe and healthy environment at Delhi airport. At the airport, we’ve put in place a number of precautions to assure passenger safety without jeopardizing their comfort or enjoyment. Our crews have been working nonstop to sanitize the terminal. DIAL will continue its public awareness campaign by educating and urging passengers to wear face masks and keep social distance while traveling.”
DIAL claimed it had taken a number of precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and assure passenger safety without jeopardizing their “comfort and enjoyment.”
“Teams have been working nonstop to sanitize the terminal. “While at the airport, DIAL will encourage passengers to wear face masks and keep social distance,” said Videh Kumar Jaipuriar, CEO of DIAL.
The DIAL has made several arrangements following the Covid protocol, such as thermal scanning for the passengers’ convenience, including 10 “Scan & Fly” and three “Common-Use Self-Service (CUSS) counters at the entry point, as well as 10 “e-processing” counters to establish a contactless process and crowding at the check-in counters for entry to the terminal and entry to the security checkpoint. The security hold area has also been extended to accommodate more sitting and retail options.
In the latest survey of passengers’ experiences at Delhi Airport, nearly all respondents said they were confident flying through the airport. In the poll, 51 percent of travelers said they felt delighted while traveling through Delhi Airport, while 48 percent said they felt reasonably delight.
