New Delhi: Delhi Airport’s oldest terminal, Terminal 2, will shut down from Monday-Tuesday midnight for what is likely to be the last renovation of this 1986-era building. The airlines, including IndiGo and Akasa, will shift the flights currently operating from T2 to T1 from Tuesday.
Delhi Airport stated, “Effective April 15, 2025 (0001 hrs), all flights currently operating from Terminal 2 will shift to Terminal 1 until further notice.” IndiGo said it had taken proactive measures to ensure that its customers were well-informed about this change. The airline is reaching out to all passengers and their respective travel agents through SMSes, calls and emails to notify them. IndiGo recommends retrieving PNR on the airline’s website or mobile app to check the departure/arrival terminal before heading to the airport. Akasa said all their flights to and from Delhi would operate from T1.
T2 is expected to reopen in four-five months, and by then, Delhi-NCR’s second airport at Greater Noida would have become operational. Noida Airport may prolong the lifespan of T2, which is to be demolished to make way for a bigger T4, as the former is expected to impact the footfall at Indira Gandhi International Airport.
IGIA has a capacity to handle close to 11 crore passengers annually and saw 7.8 crore last year. So there is no real hurry to demolish T2 now as Noida Airport will open with a capacity of 1.2 crore passengers annually, which will increase to 7 crore in the next few years.
While Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) will go easy on the proposed T4, it will have to step up on the delayed air train at IGIA, which is essential to link terminals to ensure seamless transfers. DIAL has begun conducting trials for transferring check-in baggage of connecting passengers between T3, IGIA’s only international terminal, and the all-domestic T1, covering a distance of 7km. The revamped T1 gets fully operational from Tuesday.
However, with an air train still a few years away, transfers between T3 and T1—at a time when connecting traffic is on the rise thanks to massive network expansion by Air India group and IndiGo—remain a major pain point for passengers. To make domestic-international or vice-versa transfers between T3 and T1 a little less painful, DIAL plans to ensure baggage of some connecting passengers gets transferred on the airside without them being required to carry the same with them on buses.
As of now, international arrivals at Delhi airport have to complete their immigration and customs clearance and have to check in the baggage again for connecting flights. “DIAL is conducting trials for smooth transfer of cabin baggage from T3 to T1 for passengers arriving from international destinations and having a connecting flight from T1,” DIAL CEO Videh Kumar Jaipuriar said last Friday. Once the new system is implemented, passengers won’t have to carry baggage to T1 after customs clearance. They can drop the baggage at T3, and the airline concerned will transfer it to T1 through the airside, Jaipuriar said.
DIAL has assured the civil aviation ministry that the transfer of passengers for connecting flights from T1 to T3 will be completed in 120 minutes. “We have committed to govt that it will be ensured passengers coming out of T1 can board a flight in T3 in 120 minutes,” he added.
