As many as 114 flights would be cancelled daily at the Delhi airport for three months from June 15 because of a runway upgrade, airport operator DIAL said on Friday.
The Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) said the average reduction in daily flights during the period would be around 7.5 per cent, and passengers were being informed about the changes well in advance. It said the decision would cause minimal inconvenience for passengers as traffic remained low during the period.
Around 1,350 flights operate from the Indira Gandhi International Airport daily. According to the proposed schedule, 57 arrival and departure flights will be cancelled daily, and 43 will be rescheduled. The cancellation of flights would impact connectivity to Calcutta, Mumbai, Patna and Guwahati.
Following the adjustments, the number of daily flights on the Calcutta-Delhi route would be reduced from 22 to 21. For Mumbai, the number of daily flights would drop from 56 to 54, and for Chennai, from 20 to 19. DIAL said the Instrument Landing System would be upgraded to make the runway 10/28 CAT III compliant, which would facilitate flight operations at low visibility conditions during fog.
“We have now worked with airlines to collaborate on slot adjustments and to accommodate revised arrival capacity, ensuring minimum passenger inconvenience. And the objective is to ensure optimum use of available runway capacity while maintaining time performance and minimising passenger disruption,” DIAL chief executive officer Videh Kumar Jaipuria said.
The new slot plan was finalised after multiple rounds of discussions with airlines, the civil aviation ministry and air traffic control to ensure alignment between the proposed schedule and the adjusted capacity. The airport has four runways and three terminals, of which one is currently closed for maintenance work.