IGI Airport’s Terminal 3 set to have three international piers starting next week

Delhi's IGI Airport's Terminal 3 will focus on international traffic, with Pier C set to open next week, enhancing its global transit hub status.

Terminal 3 of Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport is set to be repositioned as an international-heavy terminal as part of a broader strategy to turn the airport into a global transit hub, with a newly converted transfer facility at “Pier C” expected to become operational as early as next week, people familiar with the development said on Tuesday.

(HT Archive)

“Pier C at T3 is ready and international operations are expected to begin as early as next week, subject to final clearances,” an official aware of the development, who asked not to be identified, said.

Airport piers are generally long and narrow structures extending from the main terminal building, serving as parking positions for aircraft at gates, allowing passengers to board and disembark via aerobridges.

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The conversion of Pier C will change the operational layout of Terminal 3, which currently has four piers: two international and two domestic. With Pier C now designated for international operations, the terminal will have three international piers and one domestic pier, reflecting a broader shift toward handling more international traffic at T3.

“Indian travellers are now seen to be planning trips to Southeast Asia or even Central Asia rather than domestic trips. This pattern raised the need to dedicate an additional zone to the growing international traffic,” an official said. “We also want the country and Delhi to be recognised as a hub,” he added.

Terminal 3 currently handles around 105,000 passengers daily, including approximately 60,000 international and 45,000 domestic passengers (departures and arrivals combined), indicating a growing trend toward international operations.

Despite the rise in international traffic, transit traffic – a key metric for any global passenger hub – has remained low. Delhi airport currently sees around 4,000 international-to-international transit passengers daily. “This gap is now being addressed through infrastructure and procedural changes,” said another official.

Officials cited above explained that the Pier C facility is being integrated with a proposed airside transfer system that will allow transit passengers to move between aircraft and terminals within the secure airport zone, without entering city-side traffic. However, regulatory approval for this airside connectivity via bus is still awaited.

“The idea is that passengers should not fear missing flights. The transfer time becomes predictable because these buses are not subject to traffic delays,” another official said, adding that the model shifts the responsibility of tight connections from passengers to airport operators.

The passenger handling capacity at IGI Airport’s Terminal 1 was recently raised from 17 million passengers per annum (MPPA) to 40 MMPA. Terminal 2 has a capacity of 17 MMPA, and the soon-to-be sole domestic pier in T3 is estimated to handle around 12 MMPA.

“The shift (to international) marks a change from earlier planning that focused largely on domestic traffic growth, with Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 expansions catering primarily to domestic passengers, while Terminal 3 now being reoriented to handle a larger share of international traffic as part of the hub strategy,” the official added.