Find out the number of flights impacted as Delhi airport Terminal 1 suspends operations

The country woke up to the collapse of the structure at Delhi Airport’s Terminal 1 this morning. Amongst blame games and rescue operations, the operations at Terminal 1 came to a halt, with airlines having to cancel flights after initially delaying them. Later in the day, Delhi Airport said that operations from Terminal 1 have been suspended indefinitely.

Ironically, the expanded structure of T1, which takes the terminal's capacity to 40 million and the airport capacity to 100 million, was inaugurated recently and was to be operationalised very soon. The accident happened before the expanded part could be operationalised. However, it did not happen at the gates, which were expanded. Instead, the structure at departures has come down over the approach road.

Data provided by Cirium, an aviation analytics company, exclusively for this article shows that 89 flights are scheduled to depart from Delhi Airport's Terminal 1 tomorrow. The number is 90 for Sunday. A similar number of flights arrive at Terminal 1, too. This is roughly 18.6% of total domestic departures from Delhi, with about 480 domestic flights departing across the three terminals, Terminal 3, Terminal 2, and Terminal 1D.

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As Terminal 1 went into modification and expansion, flights from the terminal were curtailed and distributed amongst Terminal 3, and Terminal 2 was re-inducted, which was out of operation.

Of these 89 flights that are impacted, 17 are operated by SpiceJet, while the rest are by IndiGo. All these flights are domestic since Terminal 1 caters only to Domestic traffic. Overall, IndiGo has 217 domestic departures scheduled for tomorrow from Delhi; thus, the impact is on 32% of its flights. For SpiceJet, it has only 36 departures from Delhi, which means its impact is higher at 50%.

What does the closure mean?

IndiGo and SpiceJet operate out of Terminal 1, and there will be considerable disruption in operations today and over the next few days. This is because Delhi is congested and operating at near peak capacity for most hours. Much effort will have to be put into communicating with the passengers about the terminal change. Not just this, the other two terminals are operating at peak capacity as well. This means there will be congestion on both the air side and the terminal.

With check-in counters overflying at the other two terminals to accommodate additional passengers with the same infrastructure is a problem. Likewise, the queue at security will be a challenge even when all security lines are operational.

On the air side, finding empty bays and accommodating additional flights will be a task. There is also a limit to remote bays, many of which are currently occupied by grounded IndiGo and Go FIRST planes. Operating from the apron of Terminal 1 while having the passengers bussed from T3 or T2 would mean a long bus ride for passengers, with potential delays in baggage delivery and flights, impacting schedules not just in Delhi but country-wide.

The impact may not be limited to IndiGo and SpiceJet since the operational challenge will spill over across airlines due to the same infrastructure coming under pressure.

How long will T1 be closed?

There remains uncertainty about this. The collapsed structure will need investigation and clearance. Once that is done, the operator and government agencies will have to be satisfied with the structure’s stability and structural audit may be required before operations are cleared to resume.

Also Read | Passengers flood X with complaints as flights cancelled amid roof collapse, heavy rain

A temporary structure may also be needed for the time being to ensure that passengers are protected from the hard elements, especially in the current rainy season.

What should the passenger do?

If you are a passenger scheduled to fly into or from Delhi on either IndiGo or SpiceJet, keep an eye out on the social media handles of the airlines and Delhi Airport. Ensure that your ticket has updated contact details of you and not your travel agent to receive the most up-to-date updates and changes from the airline. It may be wise to reach the airport early and anticipate crowding and minor delays.

Tail Note

With the parliament in session and the rain creating havoc in Delhi, politics will take over the narrative. It remains to be seen how soon the operator and the government work together to restart Terminal 1. Without Terminal 1, the airport's capacity is down significantly or 40% if the full operations were to be considered, though they have not yet begun.

This would probably prompt other airports to conduct structural audits to ensure that a situation like this is not repeated.