Hi-tech Delhi airport terminal delays Air India flights in city

Air India (AI) is finding it difficult to adjust to the new hi-tech terminal T3 at Delhi airport. As a result of this, flights scheduled to leave for various destinations have been getting delayed since October 31, when the airline shifted its domestic operations partially to the terminal. Delays at that end have caused consequential delays at Mumbai. 

On November 3, two AI flights, AI 120 and AI 717, got delayed by seven hours inconveniencing more than 350 passengers. As the AI 120 flight could not leave Delhi on time for Mumbai, the AI 717, which would have been the same aircraft to fly passengers to Muscat from Mumbai, could not be made available to passengers.   

On November 9, AI 348, a flight to Shanghai, was delayed by over 24 hours. The airline officials cited the reason as “operational”. Again, AI 143, the flight to Paris, was cancelled due to “technical problems”.

The flight to Abu Dhabi, AI 841, which was scheduled for an 8.15pm departure, could take off only by 11pm on Sunday. The AI 895 to Dubai was delayed by two hours while the AI 638 to Amritsar was delayed by four hours.  

The reasons for such a situation are attributed to a shortage of parking bays at the airport, a merger gone wrong, staff shortage and fear psychosis among employees to report to the new terminal. 

The distance between the terminals T1 and T3 is another problem. “As AI operates hub-and-spoke flights where there is transit of domestic and international passengers, they have to shuttle passengers from terminal T1 to T3. It takes 30 minutes to cover the distance between the terminals,” said an AI source. 

Only international flights operated from the terminal since its opening in July. However, the AI started operating its domestic flights from there to tide over the delays after its merger with Indian.  

Indian airlines is facing a shortage of ground-handling staff. “The problem became huge during the Diwali weekend as most people had taken leave.

Moreover, the Indian airline staff which handles domestic flights is present at T1,” said the source. “It is the AI staff which has been handling flights at T3 and there is a shortage of at least 300 people at the ground level which includes supervisors and loaders.”

Despite the merger, the staff of both airlines is not ready to work together. “The Indian staff does not want to go to T3 as they are not comfortable with the joint venture of AI with SATS for ground handling (GH). They do not want to work with them as they think that AI is capable of doing GH on their own,” said the source.

The spokesperson for Air India refused to comment on the issue. 

Meanwhile, it is said that most of the private airlines are not willing to shift their operations to T3. However, spokesperson for Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) said, “On Wednesday, Madhavan Nambiar, secretary, civil aviation, held a meeting with all the stakeholders comprising DIAL, representatives of the airlines that would be shifting to T3 on the 11th and 14th."

"Nambiar and his team asked pointed questions to the airlines whether they had any concerns on any front, and if so, they should be frank and forthright about it. To this, all the airlines said that they did not have any concerns and were fully prepared to shift their operations to T3,” the spokeperson said.