New Delhi will overtake Mumbai as India's busiest airport by 2010. The gap between passengers using the two airports is closing, with more aircraft landing and leaving Delhi than Mumbai for both domestic and international travel.
Mumbai airport handles over 22.25 million passengers annually, while Delhi handles over 20.44 million passengers. But according to figures of the two airport authorities, by 2010 Delhi, with a projected passenger traffic of 28.7 million, will move ahead of Mumbai, with a projected traffic of 27.5 million. By 2007-08, the two could be neck and neck with Delhi's traffic projected to grow 16.4 per cent to Mumbai's 7 per cent.
With more and more foreign airlines coming to the capital city, Delhi will become the country's busiest airport for international flights as well. In 2006-7, international passenger growth for Delhi (6.44 million) was 15 per cent to 9.2 per cent for Mumbai (7.35 million).
Analysts say Mumbai's international traffic is growing at a slower rate because many international flights to the south no longer fly through it.
"A majority of the international traffic is absorbed by the international airports at Hyderabad, Bangalore, Kochi and others," said R Lal of the International Air Transport Association.
"International flights coming via North
India have to come through Delhi, which is why it has huge growth," said Amrit Pandurangi of PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Analysts say Delhi airport also has scope for expansion, unlike Mumbai. "Delhi airport has 5,000 acres, of which about 70-80 per cent is unused. Mumbai already has land constraints since 220 acres around the airport is occupied by slum dwellers," said aviation analyst Kapil Kaul, CEO, Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation.
Industry estimates also say Mumbai airport will be saturated when passenger traffic touches 30 million. In contrast, the Delhi airport can absorb up to 37 million by 2010, expanding even further after that.
A year after it took over the airport, Delhi International Airport Ltd has already increased the number of aircraft andled per hour from 5 to 40 during the last 12 months, say executives of GMR, the company hat has the mandate for the modernising Delhi airport.
The construction of two rapid exit taxiways and a parallel runway each for the two runways have helped. With the construction of a new runway, GMR claims the airport will be able to handle 75 aircraft per hour.
However it hopes to meet the gap between passengers carried and the capacity of the airport to handle it by 2010. In 2010, the airport will be able to handle 37 million passengers.