Features

Airport hub: The capital's terminal

5 Aug 2015 by Akanksha Maker

Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We are 15th in queue and should take off shortly. Thank you.”

Prior to July 2010, people flying out of New Delhi’s International airport were used to hearing an announcement like this. Airplane queues were a usual occurrence in Delhi, and the airport only managed 42 movements per hour. Today, Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) handles 80 movements per hour. This progress is duly credited to the overhaul that took place five years ago. The airport inaugurated a new runway, the swanky Terminal 3 building, and renovated the existing Terminal 1 (C and D). The mandate to carry out these mammoth tasks was assigned to GMR, an Indian conglomerate by Airports Authority of India in January 2006, following an international bidding process.

The group spent almost one year between May 2006 and February 2007, planning and preparing blue-prints of the new terminal. “I visited road- shows for contractors across the globe in Japan, United States of America, Thailand, United Kingdom and Germany with 700 drawings of the terminal. Contractors would shy away listening to the time-period assigned. Ultimately, we froze on Larsen & Toubro, and GMR undertook the risk of the project,” said Prabhakar Rao, CEO of GMR. Airports Authority of India provided the conglomerate with a few guidelines for the project such as the building of more aero-bridges and baggage-belts. Delhi being a hyper sensitive zone, high-security was another key mandate. The government also appointed a high-court committee that accelerated the process of approvals, which can take up to months in the country. The project commenced as planned, keeping in mind the timeline of October 2010, when Delhi welcomed citizens of 120 countries for the Commonwealth Games.

And, 55,800 drawings and 58 government approvals later, Indira Gandhi International Airport introduced its new avatar to the world.

The airport now has three runways namely 11/29, 09/27 and 10/28. Additionally, 11/29 — IGIA’s new runway is Asia’s longest for landing wide-bodied aircraft. No ordinary task, this runway was built in 37 months on a land that was a sewage swamp surrounded by a dense forest. “It was hard to imagine how an area suitable for landing sea-planes would convert into a modern runway within the initially planned time period of two years,” said Rao. “The new runway has helped de-congest air-traffic, and we now have one of the highest on-time performances in the world, at 88 per cent.”

All these developments in infrastructure and technology together have helped transform IGIA into the prime hub airport of India. Delhi now serves 58 domestic and 62 international destinations.

Sixty- three airlines fly through IGIA (seven domestic and 56 foreign carriers). The airport is a hub for Air India, IndiGo, Vistara and SpiceJet. Domestic operations of IndiGo, SpiceJet and GoAir are through Terminal 1, while all other airlines operate through Terminal 3, including the international operations of IndiGo and SpiceJet.

“The old airport spanned 70,000 sqm; now Terminal 3 itself sprawls across 5,00,000 sqm. We’ve gone from nine to 78 aero-bridges, and also have the highest baggage handling capacity in the world (more than Heathrow London) at 12,800 bags per hour,” said the CEO. The entire airport is controlled by Information Technology and access control systems are now in place. The nine storeyed new terminal building has the modern five level in-line baggage handling system, that saves the trouble
of carrying out baggage X-ray before check-in. It also has six check-in islands, 168 check-in counters and 95 immigration counters across two piers. An average of 885 flight movements is achieved daily.

Previously, the airport didn’t have an AOCC — Airport Operations Control Centre. This department has also been formed in a separate building in the vicinity that manages the allocation of boarding gates, baggage belts, and the opening and closing
of doors.

“A transit passenger looks at three basic things while picking a hub airport: relaxation, food and shopping. The Delhi airport provides all three,” said Rao. The Indira Gandhi International Airport is the only one in India to have its own airport hotel; its Eaton Smart hotel is divided into a domestic and an international wing, with 36 and 57 rooms respectively. The rooms offer the basic facilities of a three-star hotel including high-speed internet, tea and coffee making facilities and LCD televisions. Passengers staying at the hotel can also access its spa and gym. Apart from Eaton Smart, passengers looking to rest in-between flights can lounge at spots available near the boarding gates that are equipped with computers and televisions. Three lounges are managed by GMR in addition to dedicated lounges by Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, British Airways and Air India.

Further, the airport has 27,870 sqm of retail space with 500 domestic and international brands. Its food- court offers a variety of cuisines, and spas around the international terminal provide relaxing treatments to the tired traveller. Passengers can dine at various global and domestic F&B brands such as KFC, Pizza Hut, Domino’s Pizza, Starbucks, Costa Coffee, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, and Punjab Grill. The international terminal is home to luxury and high street labels that include Ferragamo, Tumi, Armani, Hugo Boss, Victoria’s Secret, Pandora, Mont Blanc and Swarovski, and the domestic terminal houses Marks & Spencer, Tommy Hilfiger, United Colors of Benetton, Swarovski, Accessorize, Da-Milano, Samsonite, Fabindia and William Penn. “A modern hub airport, IGIA is not only a benchmark for other Indian cities, but also a global example of excellence,” said Rao. This is only reaffirmed by the host of awards won by the airport.

For the third year in a row, in 2014, IGIA won the award for the second best airport in the world for its service quality among the airports handling 25-40 million passengers per annum, amongst 50 other titles. Terminal 3 is also India’s first airport to receive LEED Gold certification. It incorporates a sustainable design that includes battery-operated vehicles for travellers, as well as interiors created with recycled content.

The transformation of the Delhi airport has definitely put the capital in the spotlight of business travel. In addition, the new government with its “visas on arrival” scheme for 77 countries is vehemently attracting leisure and corporate visitors. With the rationalisation of the Aviation Turbine Fuel in sight and the launch of new airlines such as Air Vistara, the future of Indian aviation looks bright; and Indira Gandhi International Airport certainly steers the way.

QUCK FACTS ABOUT DIAL

88 per cent on-time performance
5,100 acres
34 million passengers per annum capacity
78 aero-bridges
95 Immigration counters
Six check-in islands with 168 check-in counters 12,800 bags per hour- capacity of the In-line Baggage Handling System (highest in the world) 14 Baggage reclaim belts
96 walkways
27,870 sqm of retail space
80 flight movements per hour
37 months to build
50 titles won

WIFI

The airport is wifi enabled (free service until 45 minutes).
To access the internet, the system prompts the browser to enter the mobile number, after which a username and password is sent to the user

F&B AT THE AIRPORT