Delhi (DEL) | Indira Gandhi International Airport

[himmat113]

@Raghu, Ramesh and Sun,

Thanks a lot for your kind comments.

Some pics of the terminal.

This pictures gives us an idea about the how long the terminal is.

image hosted on flickr


The Green gates.
image hosted on flickr

[AutobotDelhi]

Emirates to invest $2 million for lounge at Delhi airport

DUBAI: Emirates Airlines, which brought to India the double decker Airbus A-380, will invest $2 million in setting up an exclusive lounge at the newly inaugurated swanky Terminal-3 of the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi.

The airline, which currently has about 900 employees working for it in India, is also looking to hire more.

"We are opening more lounges for business people in India. It would be exclusive lounge at the Delhi airport. This is something that we are looking forward to," Majid Al Mualla, Emirates Senior Vice-President (Commercial Operations West Asia and Indian Ocean) said.

He said soft opening of the new lounge is expected by the end of August. Currently, there is a common lounge for various airlines.

Asked about the kind of investments that the airline would be putting in setting up the exclusive lounge, he said as per the plan they have earmarked $2 million for each lounge. In February this year, Emirates had opened their lounge at the Mumbai airport.

"There will be other points in India where we would be opening lounges in the future. We have very good healthy business people in each sector. As soon as you reach 75 per cent load factor, one starts looking at having own lounge," Mualla said.

The airline, which currently operates 184 weekly flights from 10 destinations in the country, is looking at a growth of 15 per cent in passenger load during the current financial year.

Asked about the employment chances with the airline looking bullish on the Indian market, Mualla said the lounges were an opportunity to recruit more.

"As of now we are having about 900 people working in India but this number will go up. We are hiring more people in our call centre and as soon as we open lounges, we will have more people," he said.

Mualla said in the last five years, the growth coming out of India is "tremendous".

"It is not just the traditional load from India to the Middle-East. We have seen a tremendous growth to US, Europe and even to leisure destinations. There is lot of mix of traffic through India and this is good," he said adding, "We are looking at a growth of 15 per cent in traffic during the current financial year from India."

Source

[yaatri]

Originally Posted by himmat113

I was there for the landing of the Airbus A380. Here are some pics I managed to click. Almost missed it because of the last minute change from rwy 29 to rwy 11. I was waiting at the 29 end, saw it executing a missed approach from the 11 side, drove like crazy to the other end, missed the touch down by a second.

Nice pictures. Runway 29 and runway 11 are the same runway with different headings. The the two headings are separated by 180 degrees on the same runway.

[geep]

Originally Posted by aranjan

The woman quoted in the HT article said the terminal is 'even better than some airports in the US'!? Is this a joke, it is much better than most airport terminals in both the Americas and Europe. Even the other passenger comments said it was just good. Either people are blind or this terminal is not as great as I thought it was. I guess I am just freaking out. From the pictures I have seen and from what I know about the terminal I think it is truly a top notch terminal. Heck I think T2 now that it has been upgraded is better than most of the terminals at JFK especially the international terminal which is just filthy. At least T2 is now clean and kept up nicely with GMR in charge, plus the staff are better by far.

Anyways...thanks for the posts guys...it is truly incredible to having followed this since 2006 and having been to IGI multiple times and seeing the airport transform from a haven of filth to a pretty decent airport in just a few years and even after that the airport keeps getting much better with T1D and now this.

To be honest, from the pictures the airport looks ok but nothing that is out of this world as some news reports seem to suggest. This is also a new airport so it will naturally look fine for now. Ask yourself if you would seriously be so amazed if you passed through the exact same airport in some other country. I find too many Indians are biased when it comes to evaluating Indian accomplishments because of an inferiority complex. And then there is the jingoism that is typical of poor third world countries that clouds the ability of people to objectively look at things.

But I do think the comment about T3 being even better than some airports in the US is reasonable - I am sure T3 has more services than the Oakland airport or the Kansas City International airport for instance. However the larger issue is also that the typical US or European environment is much cleaner overall (dust free for instance) and gives a uniform experience. Compare getting out of a metro station in Stockholm to getting out of a metro station in Delhi. The overall experience counts and Delhi is nowhere near creating a comparable experience.

[sabya99]

Originally Posted by aranjan

The woman quoted in the HT article said the terminal is 'even better than some airports in the US'!? Is this a joke, it is much better than most airport terminals in both the Americas and Europe. Even the other passenger comments said it was just good. Either people are blind or this terminal is not as great as I thought it was. I guess I am just freaking out. From the pictures I have seen and from what I know about the terminal I think it is truly a top notch terminal. Heck I think T2 now that it has been upgraded is better than most of the terminals at JFK especially the international terminal which is just filthy. At least T2 is now clean and kept up nicely with GMR in charge, plus the staff are better by far.

Anyways...thanks for the posts guys...it is truly incredible to having followed this since 2006 and having been to IGI multiple times and seeing the airport transform from a haven of filth to a pretty decent airport in just a few years and even after that the airport keeps getting much better with T1D and now this.

Jfk international terminal is not at all filthy dirty terminal. I travelled just six months ago, it is nice , spacious and clean. It becomes dirty after Air India or Emirates departure! I like this terminal.
Old IGI international terminal was small compared to new T3 but it was clean, well maintained and efficient. Anybody has idea about its future?

[aranjan]

All I can say is that I have been through JFK, Newark, Delhi and London Heathrow fairly recently and my experiences have been better at Delhi for the most part. It was cleaner and had friendlier staff even in immigration. 4 years ago Delhi T2 was filthy and smelly and dusty. In my last visit to JFK everything was decent and the retail area and check-in areas were very nice, but once you go to the departures area you see torn carpet, torn chairs and the bathrooms are covered in urine and feces at times. LaGuardia is even worse, much worse.

Also I can safely say that T3 looks better than most American airports. If T3 was built in New York it would be considered great based on what I have seen. The exterior does leave a bit to be desired, but the rest is fantastic.

[Cov Boy]

Congrats to GMR again, its a beautiful building!

I really like the artwork inside the builiding, it very colourful and creative.

Great photos of the Super Jumbo & latest photos.

[Suncity]

[Illusionist]

Originally Posted by Gaurav787

I agree with the concern but you see there is something we need to consider i guess ..from all the other pictures i have noticed that the first few about 6-8 counters are for first and business class passengers who are much less in numbers than the economy passengers which would be the bulk ..for them to clear immigration they would need to walk a bit further and then queue up so i guess it would partially solve the problem and i am sure DIAL would probably have some official directing people to go towards the other counters...In T2 everything was very close by and hence the escalators had to be switched off to prevent people from falling...remember the young child who died when she fell down the shaft at the bottom of the escalator in its pit...the crowd will be dissipated and asked to walk along adn that shud take care of it and i think there is an exact mirror image immigration counter setup at the far end of the canyon beyond that HSBC poster so the passengers would not have any problem...the canyon is long and high so the long part shud take care of it...although the beauty of the canyon could be a distraction

I have never known about or seen different immigration counter for the different class of passengers. classes only exist with the airlines not with the govt. all i have seen is a separate counter for citizens and non citizens.

[yaatri]

Originally Posted by Illusionist

I have never known about or seen different immigration counter for the different class of passengers. classes only exist with the airlines not with the govt. all i have seen is a separate counter for citizens and non citizens.

If you haven't seen it, it does not mean it doesn't happen. It's done covertly. .
At some airports, they have an express line, which can only be used by people who have an express card, which is handed by the airline to its business class and the elite frequent fliers, for both arrival and departure.

[gradybush]

Also in the US there are special TSA security lines for Business Class passengers at major airports and it is done quite openly. Its a facility that the govt provides to the business travelers as a way to appreciate their business.

[bhargavsura]

Not just for business class, for everyone.

[sammyk]

Originally Posted by bhargavsura

Not just for business class, for everyone.

Yes, but there are still two different lines at some airports.

[bhargavsura]

Yes. There are.

[AutobotDelhi]

Originally Posted by yaatri

If you haven't seen it, it does not mean it doesn't happen. It's done covertly. .
At some airports, they have an express line, which can only be used by people who have an express card, which is handed by the airline to its business class and the elite frequent fliers, for both arrival and departure.

I think Immigration is same for everyone. Ticketing can have economy & business class checking. I haven't seen separate Immigration counters for business class passengers in Atlanta airport and it's the world's busiest. Unless they are hidden somewhere .

[niknak]

IU's edit:

Post edited out.

That's an old image taken by fellow member Himmat who you've conveniently not given credit to. You've been previously advised multiple times to give credit/state the source but you never seem to understand.

Please read Jan's message on giving credit:
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/announ...p?f=450&a=1131

And also do use imageshack or any other suitable image hosting site.

Thanks
IU

[Reshma_Superstar]

Many airports including Heathrow have special immigration lines for first and business class passengers. Even BOM has separate lines.

[Gaurav787]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_TOjsyaDRA

Nice video onboard the A380 to DEL..Flight looks absolutely full

[Illusionist]

Pics courtsey Kartik Gupta

[harsh1802]

Looks nice!