Delhi airport to impose higher charges on grounded aircraft

New Delhi: The operator of Delhi airport, DIAL intends to levy charges from airlines for grounded aircraft because they take up the available parking space, impacting overall operational efficiency as instances of grounding of planes due to technical and other issues are on a rise.

Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) CEO Videh Kumar Jaipuriar stressed in an interview that in the next traffic calculation DIAL is planning to levy higher charges for airlines who are grounding aircraft, hence disturbing the operations of other airlines. The country’s largest airport will have its next traffic review early next year.

According to an airport spokesperson, around 64 aircraft of various airlines are grounded–24 IndiGo aircraft, 23 Go First aircraft, six SpiceJet planes, two Air India planes, five Zoom Air aircraft, three Jet Airways planes and an Alliance Air aircraft.

As per a recent report by aviation consultancy CAPA India, 161-166 planes are currently grounded in India and the number is expected to increase to 196-201 planes till March, 2024 end.

Jaipuriar added that the airport has the maximum number of parking stands for aircraft of which many are being used by grounded aircraft. After these aircraft are moved away, then they will be comparable to some of the biggest airports in terms of the number of parking stands.

The Delhi airport has three terminals–T1, T2 and T3 of which only T3 has international operations. On a daily basis, the airport in the national capital oversees 1,300 to 1,500 flight movements. Due to this, DIAL is planning to convert T2 into an international terminal for a short period, which is currently a domestic terminal. By the end of February 2024, the expansion of T1 is expected to be completed.
The passenger traffic on the airport is expected to be more than 70 million in the fiscal ending March 2023.

-B