DIAL to incentivise quicker turnaround time for flights with lower parking rates, BA

In a bid to promote faster turnaround times from when an aircraft arrives to when it departs and thus free up aircraft parking stands, Delhi International Airport Ltd proposes to levy no charges for planes that park for up to two and a half hours. Aircraft parked for over 6.5 hours, meanwhile, may attract higher charges, DIAL CEO Videh Kumar Jaipuriar said on Wednesday.

The proposed higher charges for planes parked for a long time comes from the recent experience after a large number of planes – those of now-defunct Jet Airways and GoAir as well as the Airbus A320s of IndiGo grounded after problems with the Pratt & Whitney engines – have occupied parking space at Indian airports for years. “When the G20 Summit was held in Delhi in Sept 2023, 65 parking stands were occupied by long-parked planes. Now this number is down to 43-44 as erstwhile GoAir planes are being repossessed by lessors. We want to disincentivise this sort of long-term parking,” said Jaipuriar.

The CEO also said, “We have proposed lower aero charges for new routes that are over 5,000km away. This is to promote more direct connectivity to and from Delhi by carriers like Air India, IndiGo etc. Just 11 per cent-12 per cent of people travelling to North America go on direct flights. The remaining go one-stop via hubs in Middle East, Southeast Asia or Europe. Govt is working to make IGIA the first international hub.”

The airport is witnessing a sharp rise in domestic-to-internal transfers and an increase in international-to-international transfers. “I-to-I used to be just 1 per cent of total transfer traffic but now constitutes 3 per cent, with flows coming in from southeast Asia and Europe,” said Jaipuriar. “We see I-to-I going up to 10 per cent in 5-7 years given the expansion plans and aircraft orders of Air India and IndiGo, with Delhi being the hub for both. The economic benefit of Delhi becoming a true international hub in the next five years is expected to be upwards of USD8 billion.”

“We are on the right track and expect big growth from D-to-I transfers. We are increasing the number of transfer windows in which big airlines like AI and IndiGo see their passengers alighting from one plane and boarding another.”