Delhi airport to shut 1 runway for 3 days in Nov, airlines fear cancellations

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Passengers flying to and from the national capital between November 7 to November 10 may be staring at the prospect of their flights being cancelled as the airport operator shuts one of the three runways at the Delhi airport for surface repair work, aviation industry sources told Moneycontrol.

The runway will be closed from the midnight of November 6 to 0700 IST on November 10. An official at the airport ruled out any inconvenience to passengers or airlines.

“Delhi airport keeps one runway spare. It is not used much. So the load due to repair work on one runway will be easily shifted to the other two runways. There will be absolutely no flight cancellations,” the official said.

Airline officials Moneycontrol spoke to were not convinced. “As many as 700 flights could get cancelled or rescheduled, putting the passengers at great discomfort and forcing them to revise their travel plans,” one of them said.

It may be mentioned here that October/November is the start of the peak season for airlines and its lasts till February. A flight disruption during this period could collectively translate into a loss of billions of rupees in revenues. There is no real down time at Delhi airport, with peak time on a given day extending from 0600 IST to midnight, with no additional slots being available at the airport in that time.

Delhi International Airport Ltd, the operator of the airport, communicated to the airlines about the repair of the runway -- 11/29 -- and its closure via an October 20 notification, the airline official said. GMR Airports, a wholly-owned subsidiary of GMR Infrastructure, owns a 64 percent stake in DIAL.

The official said that according to the notification, traffic handling capacity at the airport will be reduced to 45 movements per hour. One arrival equals one movement and so does one departure separately.

“On average, there are 60 to 65 movements per hour at the Delhi airport. There are bound to be several cancellations,” he said.

Another source said while the total movements had been restricted to 45 per hour, the notification had capped the number of arrivals at 20 per hour and departures at 30 per hour.