Few new flights from Delhi airport this winter

There will be very few new flights from Delhi this winter as the country's busiest airport has virtually run out of slots.

Delhi airport sees over 1,200 flights daily and its three runways can handle 67 aircraft movements per hour. While the terminal expansion is facing delays, the Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) has expressed its inability to allow more flights due to runway capacity constraints.

A senior executive from a private airline said hardly any new slots have been allocated to carriers for the winter schedule. "Delhi airport is going the Mumbai way," he said. Among the lucky ones to get slots are Alitalia, Viet Jet Air and Jet Airways, for international services.

DIAL did not comment for the story.

Last year, the Delhi airport handled over 55 million passengers and traffic grew 21 per cent - which was the fastest rate among all airports handling 40 million passengers annually in the world. Traffic at Mumbai airport, the second-busiest in the country, grew 9.9 per cent as limited slots led to addition of few services. This fuelled growth in Delhi and airlines like Vistara and Air Asia made it their hub but a rapid growth strained the airport's infrastructure.

A few months ago, UK's air traffic control submitted its recommendations to improve ground infrastructure and air navigation procedures at Delhi and the same have been accepted.