New Delhi: At about 1,550, Delhi’s IGI Airport handled its highest ever aircraft movement in a day on Feb 20 — the final day of AI Summit in the city. Given the large number of top business leaders and heads of state leaving on their jet planes, the airport created another record for itself that day by handling 94 general — private or charter — aviation aircraft movements.While the average daily air traffic movement at India’s busiest hub is about 1,500 (plus-minus 20) that includes flights by airlines, defence, VVIP, business jets and charters, during the summit from Feb 16-19, the number rose by about 30 with the peak coming on the last day. The average daily general aviation movement is 30 to 35, with last Friday seeing triple that number. The VVIP Palam side of IGIA chipped in by providing parking space to accommodate private aircraft that remained here during the duration of the summit and left with their high-profile passengers.
Officials say IGIA saw “impeccable coordination” between various stakeholders like air traffic control (ATC), Indian Air Force, airside movement, Delhi International Airport Ltd, security agencies and airlines. “Senior controllers were deputed at the tower 24×7. Delhi Airport GM (ATC) Tanvir-Ul Haque used to be here until well past midnight almost every day. The significant VVIP movement was handled as per protocol by ensuring they don’t face any delays either in air or on the ground,” said sources. In fact, the airside of the city airport was possibly the only place that escaped absolute traffic chaos in Delhi during the summit days. The summit saw one of the not-so-common times when all four runways of IGIA were operational. The five-month-long closure of its third runway (11R/29L) for upgradation was deferred from Feb 16 to ensure that the summit — and anticipated spurt in air traffic — saw the airport at 100% capacity. DIAL was asked to keep all runways operational until Feb 23 and will close 11R/29L in the next day or two.The last mega event Delhi had hosted was G20 in Sept 2023. “The air traffic seen during AI summit was much more than that during G20 days. For one, scheduled passenger traffic has increased a lot since then with IGIA seeing abut 2.5 lakh passengers daily,” said sources. On Feb 20, the airport saw 2.5 lakh scheduled passengers, only a shade below the all-time high daily figure of 2.5 lakh.IGIA breathed easy on one thing that had become a major headache during G20 — over 60 grounded planes of then defunct airlines, including GoAir and Jet Airways, and IndiGo planes awaiting functional engines from Pratt & Whitney.
