Thaindian News

New Delhi, Oct 25 (IANS) Domestic flight operations from Terminal-3 (T3) of the Indira Gandhi International Airport here will now start from Nov 14, instead of Oct 30 as announced, officials said Monday.

“To ensure the least inconvenience to the passengers, it was decided at the review meeting that the domestic operations of the three airlines - Air India, Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines - from T3 would begin from November 14,” a statement from the civil aviation ministry said.

The decision was taken at a review meeting chaired by Civil Aviation Secretary M. Madhavan Nambiar with the representatives of Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), the three airlines, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) and the Delhi Development Authority (DDA).

“The main issues which resulted in the postponement of domestic operations from T3 were the Metro connectivity expected to be in place by mid-November and integration of Dwarka underpass being executed by the DDA,” the statement said.

Both the accesses to T3 are expected to be completed by October end to mid-November, but both the Metro line and underpass would require trial operations and simulations.

The statement said that the decision to postpone T3 operations was also taken in consideration of heavy traffic in and around the terminal, which is expected to increase due to the festive seasons.

T3, the sixth largest passenger terminal in the world, was inaugurated July 3 by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, with first international flight operations commencing from July 28.