Guess what, Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) on Friday became India’s first airport to have four runways as the civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia inaugurated its fourth runway and hinted at the opening of the airport’s new terminal by October this year.

“This fourth runway makes Delhi airport the only one in the country to have four runways. This runway increases the throughput capacity of the Delhi airport from roughly 1400 - 1500 air traffic movements per day to almost 2000 air traffic movements per day,” Scindia said after the inauguration.

Scindia also said that he has asked the Delhi airport operator to commence the fourth terminal by October. “The next challenge, which I have put before them (GMR) is to ensure that the fourth terminal is also operational by October prior to the onset of the rush season,” Scindia said.

Pointing that the new runway along with the new terminal will allow Delhi airport to cater to 109 Million passengers yearly, Scindia said that the country’s civil aviation sector is witnessing the beginning of the growth phase and that the civil aviation sector is contributing to the rise of the economic power of India.

“This runway along with the terminal expansion will add to creating capacity to serve more than 109 million people throughput which would crest and beat even Atlanta in its capability,” he said.

“There will come a time in India, in the not-too-distant future, the next three years, four years, where our fleet capacity will grow from the current 720 to almost 1500 aircraft. There will come a time in India, in the not-too-distant future, where if you look at our metro capacities today, which are at roughly 221 million passengers. That will grow to about 400 million passengers,” the civil aviation minister added.

“Today is a historic landmark day for Indian civil aviation, both on an infrastructure side and a services side and with no hesitation and with every bit of capacity at my command, I would like to congratulate the GMR Group,” Scindia had said ahead of the runway’s inauguration.

Source: HindustanTimes