The commercial operations of the new domestic departure terminal of Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi will commence from April 19, Delhi International Airport Limited said on Tuesday.
The airlines would be shifting in phased manner but which airlines would be shifted first to the new terminal building, called 1D, has yet not been decided.
"The final schedule of airlines' transfer would be announced shortly. Since familiarisation exercise for airlines staff has been going on for the past one month, it would not take much time to shift the operations," a DIAL spokesperson said.
Airlines would be shifting their operations on the intervening night of April 18-19, when the last flight departs from Delhi around midnight, and first flight takes off at around 0530 hours the following morning, he added.
DIAL had earlier announced that the first phase of shifting airline operations to 1D would be carried out after April 15 and before April 26.
Built at a cost of Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion), the terminal will be able to handle 10 million passengers annually and is equipped with 72 check-in counters, 14 security channels and four-level in-line baggage handling system, the DIAL official said.
Jet Airways, Kingfisher, SpiceJet, IndiGo, JetLite and Kingfisher Red are among the scheduled domestic carriers that will operate from terminal ID. Except Kingfisher, which operates from terminal 1A, other airlines operate from terminal 1B.
The new terminal was inaugurated on February 26 by Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel.
DIAL, airlines, ground handlers and CISF have been involved in extensive Operational Readiness and Airport Transfer trials to familiarise them with the new features, layout and operating procedures of the new terminal, said an official.
While all scheduled carriers like Air India, Kingfisher and Jet Airways will shift to the upcoming T3 integrated terminal that is scheduled to be completed by March 2010, all low-cost carriers - will continue to operate from 1D.
