One runway at Delhi to be closed this week - expect delays

Runway 10/28 at the Delhi Airport is being closed for repairs, for a week starting 5 April 2016. Expect delays when traveling to or from Delhi, particularly on low-cost airlines which largely use this runway. Here's more...

Image courtesy: Wikipedia


The nature of repair work is apparently fairly routine - one that would have been done in bits and pieces over a few weeks or months, in another time and day. However, after discussions with the DGCA, airlines and the Delhi Air Traffic Control, it was decided to complete the work in one week straight.

Airlines using Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport (DEL) operate using one of three runways, which have specific uses.

Image courtesy: Google maps

  • Runway 09/27 is the shortest runway of the three (2813 meters) and primarily operates as a taxiway. However, during peak hours, Runway 09/27 is also used for active operations (departures and landings) in order to reduce the load on the other two runways. This is also sometimes used by private aircraft for active operations.
  • Runway 10/28 is the middle runway, and is mostly used as the sole runway for both departures and arrivals by low-cost airlines (Indigo, SpiceJet, Go Air), smaller regional airlines and private aircraft, for domestic operations. This is the second longest runway in DEL, at 3810 meters.
  • Runway 11/29 is the longest of the three runways at DEL, clocking an impressive 4430 meters, which includes one of the world's longest displaced thresholds at 1430 meters.

Because of these repair works and runway 09/27 being used as an operational runway rather than as a taxiway, there is no other taxiway with respect to runway 09/27. Also, for airlines that would have otherwise used runway 10/28 sharing the new runway 11/29 temporarily, this means a much longer taxiing time from that runway to Terminal 1, from where the domestic low-cost carriers operate. And since runway 11/29 will be shared, airlines operating from Terminal 3 (domestic full-service, and international) are also likely to face consequent effects, though probably not as significant as those operating from Terminal 1.

Airport authorities believe that the combined usage of runways 09/27 and 11/29 will be able to handle the current level of air traffic.

However, in my view, the absence of a taxiway for 09/27, shared use of runway 11/29, and the long jaunt from runway 11/29 to Terminal 1 will have some effect on timely performance, across all airlines. My recommendation would be to keep sufficient extra time as buffer, in your schedules.

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