Indira Gandhi International Airport

Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport: (IATA: DEL, ICAO: VIDP), located in the city of New Delhi, Delhi is one of India's main domestic and international gateways. The airport has been named after former prime minister Indira Gandhi, the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru.

Structure:

Earlier known as Palam Airport, it was renamed IGI airport with the inauguration of a new international terminal (Terminal 2) on 2 May 1986. The older Palam Airport, now known as Terminal 1, is exclusively used for domestic operations. Terminal 1 has further been divded into three separate terminals - 1A (for domestic flights of state owned Indian), 1B (for all other domestic airlines) and Domestic Arrival Terminal. There is also a separate Technical Area for the use of VVIP movements. Additionally there is a separate Hajj terminal for catering rush during Hajj.
The capacity of Terminal 1 is estimated to be 7.15 million passengers per annum (mppa). However, the actual throughput for 2005-06 was an estimated 10.4 million passengers. Including the international terminal (Terminal 2), the airport has a total capacity of 12.5 mppa whereas the total passenger traffic in 2005-06 was 16.2 mppa. There is a free transfer shuttle between the terminals.
Delhi Airport has two non-parallel runways: the main runway 10/28 (12,500 ft 3,810 m) and an auxiliary runway 09/27 (9,229 ft 2,813 m). Runway 28 is one of the few runways in Asia and the only one in South Asia equipped with CAT III-B Instrument Landing System. The winter of 2005 witnessed a record number of disruptions at Delhi airport due to fog/smog. Since then some domestic airlines have trained their pilots to operate under CAT-II conditions of a minimum 350 m (1,148 ft) visibility. On 31 March 2006, IGI became the first Indian airport to operate two runways simultaneously following a test run involving a SpiceJet plane landing and a Jet Airways plane taking off at the same time.
As there is an Indian Air Force Base (Hindon) in the flight path of Delhi airport it is necessary for civilian aircraft to make a 5 minute detour to avoid over-flying the military facility. In previous years the IAF used to close Delhi airport for use during annual celebrations to mark its "raising" day. Starting in 2006 such activities will be conducted at Hindon Air Force Base to reduce disruption to civilian air traffic at Delhi airport. This may be a fall-out of the privatization of Delhi airport in early 2006.

Modernisation:

Delhi Airport has been going through major upgrades since Fraport, Airport Authority of India, Eraman Malaysia, and GMR Infra. have been granted the contract to manage and build the airport over a 35 year time. Terminal 1A and 2 have all been renovated from new washrooms to new ceilings, to new departure area, to the latest security equipment. With this, the companies have also been constructing the brand new Terminal 3 at Indira Gandhi International Airport. This terminal will cater to both domestic and international passengers until the second phase of construction is done, which will include another new terminal which will cater to only international flights. This terminal will come in place of the old terminals already at the airport. The new Terminal 3 will be a beautiful two tier building, with the bottom floor being the arrivals area, and the top being a departures area. This terminal will have over 130 check in counters, 55 aerobridges, 30 parking bays, 72 immigration counters, 15 X-ray screening areas, for less waiting times, duty free shops, and much more. Over 90% of the passengers will use this terminal when completed. The airport will also have a mew runway to cater more than 75 plus flights an hour, almost triple then what they do now. The runway will be more than 4400 meters long and one of Asia's longest. This new terminal should be done by the 2010 Commonwealth Games that are to be held in Delhi, and will be connected by a 6 lane highway(National Highway 8), and the Delhi Metro. Terminal 3 will cater to more than 35,000,000 passengers a year.
Terminal 3 would form the first phase of the airport expansion in which a U shaped building would be developed in a modular manner. In 2010, all international and full service domestic carriers would operate from Terminal 3, while Terminal 1 would be developed as an exclusive terminal for low cost carriers. In subsequent stages, the low cost carriers would also move to the new terminal complex. Terminal 4 and 5 will be built later, but once done all International Flights will move to these two new terminals. And a new cargo handing building would be made. Also existing runways will be upgrades and a fourth parallel runway will be built. Once this is all done Delhi Airport will have over 500 check in counters, over 200 aerobridges, 150 immigration counters, restaurants, malls and much more and will be able to handle over 100,000,000 passengers a year.
Also being planned is a aeropolises. Which will include, restaurants, hotels, malls, temples, and much more. The plan is to make the airport to a "city to itself". The Government is investing 12,000 Crore in this project and investors investing over 24,000 Crore. The Airport Authority wants to see a business centre also constructed.

Incidents and accidents:

25 January 1970 - Royal Nepal Airlines Fokker F27-200 (9N-AAR) after a flight from Kathmandu, was caught in severe thunderstorms with turbulence and down draughts on final approach to Delhi (Palam Airport). The pilot couldn't control the aircraft and crashed short of the runway. Of the five crew and 18 passengers only one crew member was killed. [1]
On 23 June 1985, Air India Flight 182, which was flying on a Montreal-London-Delhi-Mumbai route, exploded in midair in a suspected act of terrorism, killing all of the passengers aboard.
On 12 November 1996 the airport was the scene of a disaster when a Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 747, climbing out after take-off, collided with an incoming Air Kazakhstan plane chartered by a fashion company, causing the deaths of all aboard the two planes.
On Christmas Eve, 24 December 1999, Indian Airlines Flight 814, which had just taken off from Kathmandu, Nepal to Indira Gandhi Airport was hijacked. The plane flew around different points in South Asia and Southwest Asia as officials of the Government of India and the Taliban negotiated. One passenger was killed and some were released. On 31 December, 1999, the rest of the hostages on Flight 814 were freed.

Airlines and destinations:

IGI Airport is the home of several Indian airlines including Air Sahara, Indian, SpiceJet, Alliance Air and IndiGo Airlines. Air India, and Jet Airways use IGI Airport as their second hub after Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport. The airport is also a major base for various other Indian air carriers including Kingfisher Airlines, Go Air, Air Deccan and Air Sahara.