Delhi airport operator Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), on Monday, said one runway of the airport would be shut for three days starting 7 November, to carry out maintenance work.
The closing of the runway – 11/29 – at the airport, the busiest in the country, is likely to impact flight operations. According to a report by Hindustan Times, around 300 flights will be affected due to reduced capacity.
Runway 11/29 of IGI Airport of New Delhi will remain closed for maintenance for three days from 0001 hours on 7 November to 0700 hours on 10 November. The scheduled time was chosen after a careful evaluation by Airport Operator in close consultation with Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the airlines.DIAL, in a statement
According to DIAL, the two other runways – 10/28 and 09/27 – would accommodate the load of runway 11/29.
Last week, airline sources had said there would be curtailment of operations and many flights would have to be rescheduled on account of closure of one runway.
In the statement, on Monday, DIAL said time of closing the runway was jointly agreed from the perspective of safety and operational reliability.
"During the maintenance, the airfield capacity will be lowered to 45 air traffic movements per hour. The airport operator has revised the slot allocations in consultation with all the airlines," it added.
In 2016-17, the airport handled 57.7 million passengers.
DIAL is a consortium led by the GMR group. Other stakeholders are AAI and Germany's Fraport.
(With inputs from PTI.)
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