Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) CEO Videh Kumar Jaipuriar on Friday announced that Delhi Airport will temporarily shut Runway 10/28 for a three-month period to carry out critical upgrades aimed at improving fog-time operations. This will impact around 100 flights in all.
Speaking to a news agency , CEO of Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), Videh Kumar Jaipuriar, said, "Out of the four runways that the Delhi airport has, there is one runway 10/28 that we are planning to shut down for three months because there are upgrades that are required."As part of the degradation, DIAL will update the current ILS (Instrument Landing System), which is already out of order. DIAL will also make the runway CAT III-B compliant. CAT III-B is an advanced landing system that allows aircraft to land in extremely low visibility conditions.
Due to the degradation activity undertaken by the DIAL, 100 flights are going to be affected overall, out of which over 43 flights are going to be rescheduled."The new schedule has already been published, and 57 departure flights are going to be cancelled. If you put it in the perspective of the percentage, then overall, for Delhi airport, about 7 per cent of the Delhi airport capacity flights will be cancelled," said the DIAL CEO."We also ensure that the cancellations are not something that is impacting in a big way. So, in most of the sectors where we had multiple connectivity, their 8-9 per cent of the connectivity was reduced so that overall that sector does not get impacted badly," he added.
Global credit rating firm Fitch Ratings in April the current year upgraded Delhi International Airport Limited to BB+, kipping the outlook as stable.In its commentary, the rating firm said that the improvement in the financial profile is likely to be materially higher than its previous expectations.DIAL benefits from a stable regulatory regime with revenue and capex determined by the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India (AERA).
The company also benefits from its position as India's largest airport by passenger traffic and the gateway to the national capital region with a catchment population of over 30 million, supporting strong long-term growth prospects despite some competition from the proposed opening of Noida International Airport in the financial year 2026. GMR group-led Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) expects the upcoming closure of one of Delhi airport’s runways—Runway 10/28—for upgradation works to lead to minimal flight disruption over the three-month closure period between June 15 and September 15.
The airport operator, airlines, and the aviation authorities have worked closely over the past few weeks on slot adjustment to minimise disruptions due to the runway closure, in a bid to avoid a repeat of the events in April when unexpected weather events due to sudden changes in wind patterns coupled with the runway closure led to scores of flights getting delayed or cancelled.
Videh Kumar Jaipuriar further said the airlines are going to cumulatively cut 114 flights a day—arrivals plus departures—to and from Delhi, which comes out to a cancellation rate of around 8 per cent, as the total daily flights to and from the airport are at around 1,450. Jaipuriar added that on average, the flight cancellation rate on regular days is in the range of 3-3.5 per cent, and therefore, an 8 per cent cancellation rate is not too high.
Additionally, another 43 flights a day will be moved from peak hours to non-peak hours to keep congestion in check during the busy hours at the airport. According to Jaipuriar, unlike in April, DIAL and the airlines are much better prepared to handle the situation this time around.
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