New Delhi, Shifting of IndiGo and SpiceJet’s operations to Terminal 3 (T3) of the IGI airport here in the wake of ongoing revamp of terminal 2 (T2) caused huge chaos at the country’s busiest airport on Monday with long queues for boarding and travellers missing their flights, several airline executives said.
“Without adding infrastructure, the airport operator has squeezed two more airlines into T3. This created massive chaos today. As a full-service carrier, we treat our customers differently but they had to face a lot of inconvenience today,” an airline executive said.
With private airport firm Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) expanding the T2, it has shifted low-cost carriers SpiceJet and IndiGo to T3 from September 5.
Following the operational change, all flights of SpiceJet operating from T2 have been shifted to T3. IndiGo flights of 5000 series have moved from T2 to T3. The shifting of the operations of the two carriers reduced passenger load at T2 by about 27 per cent.
Ahead of shifting the airlines’ operation to T3, the DIAL had earlier said that it has started Phase 3A expansion works of airside as well as Terminal 1 and Terminal 3 to make Delhi airport future-ready. Further, this will increase the airside capacity to 140 MPPA from 100 MPPA by July 2022.
With T3 scene turning disorderly on Monday around 5.50 a.m., an airline executive wrote to his seniors seeking intervention. IANS has seen several pictures clicked by airline executives and passengers at the T3.
A query sent to DIAL did not elicit any response till the time of filing the story. The report will be updated as soon as the official response is received.
A person working at Delhi airport said that there is generally heavy rush on Monday and the shifting of the two airlines added to the traffic.
“Today was the first Monday since shifting of the two airlines so the rush was very heavy. The situation should be better tomorrow onward,” he said.
