Delhi Airport Becomes First in India to Have 4 Runways in Operation

Dark/Light Mode (17/07/23)  Indira Gandhi International Airport (DEL) in New Delhi officially opened its fourth runway 11L-29R, on Friday.

The inauguration makes DEL the first airport in the country to have 4 operational runways, and increases flight capacity by almost 500 more daily flights to just under 2,000.

The runway opens not long after the opening of the 2.1 km long and 202 metre wide elevated dual-lane Eastern Cross Taxiway which reduces the distance an aircraft needs to cover after landing on the third runway to reach T1 from 9 km to 2 km.

The taxiway - which can handle most jets including A380s, B777s and B747-8 - forms an elevated bridge over Central Spine Road, which connects Mahipalpur and T3.

IndiGo A320 reg: VT-IFQ. Picture by Steven Howard of TravelNewsAsia.com

The runway was formally inaugurated by the Hon’ble Minister for Civil Aviation, Sh. Jyotiraditya Scindia, who also inaugurated the new taxiway.

As part of the strong partnership with airport operator GMR Delhi International Airport Limited (GMR-DIAL), IndiGo’s operations team played a crucial role in the operationalization of the new runway 11L-29R via a special validation flight.

The flight was carried out by an IndiGo Airbus A320 aircraft carrying inspectors and officials, which landed on the Runway 29R at 1520h IST on 11 July 2023.

The Operations team at IndiGo worked with GMR-DIAL, Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), to establish a Route Navigation Performance (RNP) based approach and missed approach procedures for the new runway. A draft approach was proposed by AAI, which was validated on a simulator. The approach was then cleared for flight validation. In addition, a safety risk assessment was carried out to identify any risk on the safe operations while conducting this approach, along with trainer sessions for the Flight Crew operating the validation flight.

Capt. Ashim Mittra, Senior Vice President Flight Operations, IndiGo, said, "We are really excited with the inauguration of the new runway at Delhi Airport. The 4th runway will add additional capacity for the country’s busiest airport. The development also highlights the Government of India’s encouragement and support for the aviation sector. We look forward to taking forward our strong partnership with GMR-DIAL and working together for the growth of the civil aviation sector in the country."

IndiGo is the largest flight operator from Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport, with over 14,000 scheduled flights movements each month.

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