Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport, one of Asia’s busiest aviation hubs, has led to the delay of 582 flights, exposing the vulnerabilities of the capital’s critical infrastructure during peak travel season.
The disruption has thrown the airport’s day-to-day functioning into chaos and heightened passenger discontent, as the airport struggles to cope with a swelling surge in traffic amid the ongoing closure of a vital runway. With summer travel at its height, and infrastructure groaning under pressure, the city’s primary gateway is now under intense public and professional scrutiny. The root cause of the disruption stems from the temporary closure of Runway 10/28, a key operational artery that was taken offline for scheduled resurfacing and technical upgradation. With only two functional runways left to absorb the entire volume of flights, the capacity shortfall has been catastrophic. Originally designed to handle around 1,200 flight movements daily, the airport is now being tested beyond its limits. On a single recent day, nearly 68 percent of scheduled flights were delayed, prompting an avalanche of complaints and creating holding patterns in the skies that lasted for hours.
The human cost of this infrastructural miscalculation has been made painfully visible. Passengers have taken to social media to share stories of missed connections, medical emergencies, and lack of communication from authorities. Videos from the airport depict chaotic scenes: families stranded, elderly passengers pleading for assistance, and arguments flaring between irate travellers and airline staff. The tipping point came when a violent altercation erupted between disgruntled passengers and Air India employees after a Delhi-Mumbai flight faced hours-long delays, forcing security intervention. The footage went viral, amplifying the crisis and casting a harsh spotlight on service providers.
Aviation analysts point out that the writing has been on the wall for some time. With a consistent increase in domestic and international traffic, IGI Airport has been stretched thin, lacking the redundancies required for sustainable operations. The closure of Runway 10/28, while essential for maintenance, was implemented without sufficient contingency planning, leaving no margin for flexibility. Experts argue that such critical infrastructure projects should be accompanied by temporary capacity-enhancing measures or staggered scheduling to avoid mass disruption.
In response, airport authorities have committed to reopening Runway 10/28 by the first week of May, with assurances that this would restore a semblance of normalcy. However, the crisis has sparked broader conversations about long-term infrastructural planning, sustainable aviation systems, and the urgent need to future-proof key transit points in India’s megacities. The need for carbon-neutral, resilient, and scalable infrastructure has never been more evident.
While the return of the third runway may offer temporary relief, stakeholders—from civil aviation bodies to urban planners—must take this as a wake-up call. Without systemic reforms and proactive planning, the airport risks recurring cycles of disruption, each time inflicting greater socio-economic costs. In a city already battling the extremes of urbanisation, equitable and sustainable access to public infrastructure should no longer be a deferred priority.
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