A man Varma, a Karol Bagh-based exporter who flies frequently on work, dreads the thought of going to IGI Airport's Terminal 1D, from where domestic flights of budget airlines depart.He hates the serpentine queues there ­ the terminal is as crowded as any railway station or a bus terminus. In the peak hours, he has to line up for everything ­ from getting past the entry gates to checking in and then passing through the security check.

Even after that, it is difficult to find a seat in the buzzing waiting area because the proliferation of commercial outlets has eaten up the space available for seating. The way leading to the escalators and stairs that take the passenger to the ground-level bussing area is so narrow that one could miss it entirely .

Outside the white canopied terminal, finding a slot among the choked lanes to stop and let the passengers disembark is a big challenge for drivers. “Things are so bad during the peak departure hours that I am reminded of the chaotic Terminal 1B days (it was IGIA's only domestic terminal till 1D became functional in April 2009),“ says Varma. He points out a big difference. “Earlier, we did not pay to use the airport. Now we are levied steep airport charges to fly in and out of Delhi. And yet this is what we get after shelling out so much!“ rues Varma.

Three low cost carriers (LCCs) use Terminal 1D: IndiGo, SpiceJet and GoAir. They are the biggest budget carriers, led by IndiGo, that handle almost two-thirds of India's domestic traffic that is growing at 30%. Last month, 67.5 lakh people flew within the country, 29.3% more than the 52.2 lakh who boarded flights in July 2014. To meet the demand, LCCs are boosting their fleets. The 100-aircraft strong IndiGo is getting 430 more planes in the coming years. SpiceJet is also seeing a resurgence, while GoAir will begin receiving delivery of more aircraft soon.

Naturally , Terminal 1--which was built to annually handle 1.6 crore passengers--is choked today. Air Asia India, an LCC that recently started flights to and from Delhi, was even asked to operate from Terminal 3 for lack of space.

“Even in the current lean travel months of July-September when aircraft have low occupancy levels, the situation has got out of hand.Imagine what will happen when the festive season starts and flyer number swells,“ exclaims an airline official. “DIAL should have anticipated the overcrowding and planned expansion much earlier.“

For airlines, the chaos at 1D means delayed flights. It is a regular experience to see airline staff calling out names of passengers still standing in lengthy queues and hurry them out because their flights are ready for departure.Once a flight gets delayed, all the other sectors it is operating fall behind too.

Things are likely to improve, but not in a hurry. A couple of months ago, DIAL sought the responses of the airlines on an ex pansion plan for Terminal 1D. While DIAL did not comment on its plans to expand 1D for this article, the project aims to expand both the domestic departure and arrival terminals. The work is scheduled to be completed by 2018.

But people are asking for quicker measures. “If DIAL cannot provide immediate relief, it should at least stop asking users to pay airport charges,“ says an irate G K Saxena of Mayur Vihar. “Why is it charging us for standing in neverending queues?“ he continues. Varma would agree.

Airline officials suggest that DIAL should operationalize unutilized terminals until the expansion plan is implemented. These include Terminal 1A, Delhi's international terminal before the 1982 Asian Games and later the departure terminal for Indian Airlines and Kingfisher; T2, which was the international terminal till T3 was built; and the Haj terminal that is used only during the Haj season.

Aviation secretary R N Choubey , in charge of the terminal, is indeed considering temporary measures to ease the passengers' woes. But DIAL has a lot to do if it is to satisfy flyers like Saxena and Varma.

Source: http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=In-3-yrs-time-a-spanking-new-Terminal-28082015006009