Delhi Airport Congestion: Bad planning and limited capacity to blame

The number of daily domestic passengers now has crossed even the pre-COVID levels of about 4,07,000 per day. (Image credit: @sudiepshri/Twitter)

Congestion and long queues were reported recently at some Indian airports, mostly at major ones such as Delhi’s IGI Terminal. The problem was attributed to a shortage of security and immigration personnel. While this is partially true, the real problem is the under-capacity of airports and the bunching of flights during peak hours.

Deploying required manpower and reduction of flights during peak hours will certainly help the immediate situation but passengers will lose on right connections and will be unable to utilise their time optimally. Moreover, aircraft utilisation will also be impacted, which is detrimental for airlines. Fewer connections and lower aircraft utilisation will eventually result in higher fares for passengers. Hence, the situation has to be analysed holistically.

We need to understand the basic reason that resulted in such an avoidable situation. The fact remains that capacity creation should happen ahead of demand. There are sufficient indicators that indicate the need for capacity expansion. When timely action is not taken, such a situation becomes inevitable. Aviation sector regulators can always keep track of the need for augmenting capacity. Periodic customer surveys also give advance warning. Taking a knee-jerk reaction affects passengers in some way, and therefore they must be aware of their rights. They deserve the level of service that is promised.

Planning Ahead

Airport terminals are designed for level C service at the minimum at all times. These standards and norms have been specified by IATA. Level C service means that the airport is designed to provide good levels of service, conditions for a stable flow of passengers, acceptable delays and good levels of comfort. Most terminals are designed taking into consideration the projections for traffic growth for 7-8 years in the region. Annual capacity and peak hour capacity are fixed ahead.

The trigger point for starting a new infrastructure is re-calibrated after observing actual growth. Luckily, we witnessed impressive traffic growth before the onset of COVID-19 pandemic. Every major airport had planned for additional capacity. Actual work had also begun at certain locations after due approvals from the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India (AERA). Some airports were laggards or simply did not have space to grow. The peak hour capacity is kept low at times to indicate flatter demand. In practice, wherever night parking is allowed at an airport, higher peaking occurs because of early departures. Therefore, higher peak hour demand should be catered to at these airports.

The area allocated for security and emigration/immigration also needs a relook. Every time a new gadget is added to the security clearance process, it leads to longer queues. Therefore, space for additional security lanes should be provided at the planning stage. It becomes difficult to provide more lanes at a later stage due to other constraints. Additional manning points for emigration/immigration will always help. The faster the clearance, the lower will be dwell time and congestion in the concourse area.

Anticipating delays in processing at check-in, airlines advise passengers to report early to the airport. That leads to the compounding of the problem. Some airlines avoid using aerobridges for passenger movement, which is not desirable, as it compromises safety and clutters the apron area.

When the Covid19 pandemic hit us, all expansion plans were put on the back burner and some ongoing projects slowed due to a funds crunch. The execution was impacted by the non-availability of manpower and material. With the pandemic under control and restrictions withdrawn,  air passenger traffic is crossing the pre-COVID levels.

The present situation can be attributed to Covid19 to some extent. The expansion of Delhi’s T1 terminal was somewhat delayed but the additional capacity will be in place soon. The upcoming Jewar airport will add additional capacity for Delhi-NCR. Mumbai will not get any respite till the Navi Mumbai airport becomes functional. The shortage of capacity at metro airports adversely affects the operation of flights under the regional connectivity scheme (RCS).

Need to Think Big

The problems at certain airports such as Chennai, Pune, Lucknow, Jaipur, Patna and Guwahati will not ease till greenfield airports are built. Since the cost of land acquisition is very high, some innovative methods have to be adopted or states should get access to low-cost borrowing. At certain airports, the capacity expansion of runways, taxiways, apron parking and terminal necessarily needs some land acquisition. If required, compulsory acquisition of land needs to be resorted to in the public interest. That can augment the capacity of some airports such as Ahmedabad, Guwahati, Lucknow and Jaipur to 20-25 million.

We need to start thinking big as we are on a high growth trajectory for the next 20 years. Airports are crucial for the growth of a city and the economy of the region. If we do not prepare in advance for this growth, we will find it difficult to handle the demand. The ministry of civil aviation (MoCA) needs to give a sufficient push for fresh capacity creation across the nation.

VP Agrawal is a former Chairman of the Airport Authority of India. His Twitter ID is @VijaiAgrawal55. Views are personal, and do not represent the stand of this publication.