IGI Airport To Restrict Service For 7 Days Now, Ahead of Republic Day
In a statement to The Times of India, the Aviation Ministry said that Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport will remain closed for seven days. The closure for a few hours has been increased to seven days up to Republic Day.
From 18 January to 26 January, the Indian Air Force had ordered the cancellation of flights in and out of Delhi’s IGI Airport. The timings for the same are from 10.30 am to 12.15 pm. This initiative has been taken in order to step up security preparations for Republic Day.
But for the comfort of the passengers, IAF has reduced the closure schedule from 9 days to 7 days at the airport. The airspace will remain open and flights will operate as scheduled on two days i.e. 19 January and 25 January.
Talking about the effects, this closure of the airspace from 10.30 am to 12.15 pm will result in the cancellation of 100 scheduled flights every day. Hence, overall this would lead to the cancellation of over 1,000 flights scheduled in the 105-minute window.
As a part of the Republic Day parade, the IAF has also conducted a fly-past. For rehearsals, the airspace over Delhi is closed for 60 to 90 minutes every year from 19 to 26 January.
According to the reports of Times of India, this is the first time when the Delhi Airport Pvt Ltd (DIAL) asked airlines to cancel all domestic flights to land and take off from the Indira Gandhi International Airport between 10.30 am and 12.15 pm.
Well, passengers don’t need to worry as most of the flights scheduled during the closure hours are rescheduled. There will be no free slots available at the airport. DIAL had to ask the domestic flights to be canceled while international carriers were asked to reschedule their flights.