Indira Gandhi International Airport (; sometimes IGI or IGI Airport; known as Palam Airport until 1986) is the primary international airport serving New Delhi, the capital of India, and the National Capital Region (NCR). The airport, spread over an area of ,About IGI Airport from the Wayback Machine is situated in Palam, Delhi, southwest of the New Delhi Railway Station and from the city centre.

Named after Indira Gandhi (1917–1984), the former Prime Minister of India, it is the busiest airport of India in terms of passenger traffic since 2009. It is also the busiest airport in the country in terms of cargo traffic. In FY2024–25, the airport handled over 79.2million (7.92crore) passengers, the highest ever in the airport's history. As of 2025, it is the ninth-busiest airport in the world, as per the latest rankings issued by the UK-based air consultancy firm OAG. It is the second-busiest airport in the world by seating capacity, having a seating capacity of over 3.6million (36lakh) seats, and the third-busiest airport in Asia, handling over 77.8million (7.78crore) passengers in 2024. It is routinely ranked as one of the busiest airports in the world by the Airports Council International.

Established by the British during the Second World War as RAFPalam, the airport served as a staging ground for Allied aerial efforts in Asia. After India achieved its independence, the Indian Air Force assumed operational management of the airport. It remained under their control before its management was eventually transferred to the Airports Authority of India. In May2006, control of the airport was subsequently entrusted to Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), a consortium led by the GMRGroup.

In September2008, the airport inaugurated a runway. With the commencement of operations at Terminal3 in 2010, it became both India's and South Asia's largest aviation hub; Terminal3 has the capacity to handle 34million (3.4crore) passengers annually and was the world's 8th-largest passenger terminal upon completion. The airport inaugurated a runway and the eastern cross taxiways (ECT) with dual parallel taxiways in July2023. IGI uses an advanced system called airport collaborative decision making (A-CDM) to help keep takeoffs and landings timely and predictable.

The other two airports serving the region are Hindon Airport and Noida International Airport. Hindon primarily handles regional and domestic flights to major metro cities under the UDAN scheme, while Noida was built to offset the burgeoning air traffic of the region. Safdarjung Airport, which used to be the primary airport of Delhi, is now mainly used by VVIP helicopters due to security reasons.

History

Palam Airport, known as RAF Palam when established, was the precursor to the modern-day Indira Gandhi International Airport. Founded in 1943 during the Second World War by the imperial British government to support Allied military operations in Asia, it served as a staging ground for Royal Air Force flights. After the British withdrawal from India, the Royal Indian Air Force, which was later rechristened as the Indian Air Force, took over the airport.

In 1962, commercial passenger operations were relocated from Safdarjung Airport (Delhi's first airport) to Palam Airport. At that time, Palam had a peak capacity of approximately 1,300 passengers per hour. In 1979–80, a total of 30 lakh (3 million) domestic and international passengers flew into and out of Palam Airport. Owing to an increase in air traffic in the '70s and '80s, an additional terminal with nearly four times the area of the old Palam terminal was constructed. On 2 May 1986, with the inauguration of the new international terminal, designated Terminal 2, the airport was renamed Indira Gandhi International Airport. However, the airport's ICAO code, VIDP, remains associated with its old name.

The old domestic airport (Palam) is known as Terminal 1 and was divided into separate buildings – 1A, 1B, and 1C. Blocks 1A and 1B were used to handle international operations while domestic operations took place in Block 1C. Block 1A and 1B later became dedicated terminals for domestic airlines and are currently closed down. It is planned that they will be demolished after the construction of newer terminals. Block 1C was also turned into a domestic arrivals terminal, and was rebuilt and opened on 24 February 2022. The newly constructed domestic departures block 1D is now used by domestic low-cost airlines (IndiGo, and SpiceJet). There is also a separate technical area for VIP passengers. The domestic arrivals terminal 1C was demolished and rebuilt into a brand-new domestic arrivals terminal. For this expansion work, GoAir and select flights of IndiGo were moved to Terminal 2 as well as select flights of SpiceJet and IndiGo to Terminal 3.

In October 2001, Canada 3000 commenced a flight to Toronto. This was the first nonstop service between India and North America. Russia's decision to open its airspace after the Cold War allowed the airline to save time by flying a direct route over the Arctic. Even though the September 11 attacks had precipitated a global decline in air travel, Canada 3000 was hoping that the service would help it improve its financial position. Nevertheless, the company collapsed one month later.

Significant growth in the Indian aviation industry led to a major increase in passenger traffic. The capacity of Terminal 1 was estimated to be 71.5 lakh (7.15 million) passengers per annum (mppa). The actual throughput for 2005/06 was an estimated 1.04 crore (10.4 million) passengers. Including the then closed down international terminal (Terminal 2), the airport had a total capacity of 1.25 crore (12.5 million) passengers per year, whereas the total passenger traffic in 2006/07 was 1.65 crore (16.5 million) passengers per year. In 2008, the total passenger count at the airport reached 2.4 crore (23.97 million). To ease the traffic congestion on the existing terminals and in preparation for the 2010 Commonwealth Games, a much larger Terminal 3 was constructed and inaugurated on 3 July 2010. The new terminal's construction took 37 months for completion and this terminal increased the airport's total passenger capacity by 34 million.

Apart from the two budget domestic airlines handled by Terminals 1 and 2, all other airlines operate their flights from Terminal 3. In June 2022, Delhi International Airport became India's first to run entirely on Hydro Power and solar energy.

Ownership On 31 January 2006, the aviation minister Praful Patel announced that the empowered Group of Ministers agreed to sell the management-rights of Delhi Airport to the DIAL consortium and the Mumbai Airport to the GVK Group. On 2 May 2006, the management of Delhi and Mumbai airports were transferred over to the private consortia. At the time of ownership transfer, Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) was a consortium consisting of the GMR Group (54%), Fraport (10%) and Malaysia Airports (10%); the Airports Authority of India held a 26% stake.

In May 2015, Malaysia Airports chose to exit from DIAL venture and sold its 10% stake to GMR Infra for $79 million. Following this move, GMR Group's stake in DIAL increased to 64%. In 2024, Fraport sold its 10% shareholding to GMR Group.

Facilities

Runways

+Runways at IGI AirportRunway numberLengthWidthApproach lights/ILS11R/29LCAT III-B / CAT II11L/29RCAT III-B / CAT II10/28CAT I / CAT III-B09/27CAT I / CAT I

Delhi Airport has four near-parallel runways: runway 11R/29L, , runway 11L/29R, , runway 10/28, , and runway 09/27, . The 09/27 runway of the Delhi Airport was the airport's first-ever runway; the British constructed the 2,816 metre-long and 60 metre-wide runway in the pre-independence era and used it during World War II. In addition to Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport in Lucknow and Jaipur Airport in Jaipur, Delhi Airport is one of the three airports in India whose runways are equipped with CAT III-B ILS. In the winter of 2005, there were a record number of disruptions at Delhi Airport due to fog/smog. Since then some domestic airlines have trained their pilots to operate under CAT-II conditions of a minimum visibility. On 31 March 2006, IGI became the first Indian airport to operate two runways simultaneously following a test run involving a SpiceJet plane landing on runway 28 and a Jet Airways plane taking off from runway 27 at the same time.

The initially proposed mode involving simultaneous takeoffs in westerly flow to increase handling traffic capacity caused several near misses over the west side of the airport where the centrelines of runways 10/28 and 9/27 intersect. The runway use was changed to segregate dependent mode on 25 December 2007, which was a few days after a near miss involving an Airbus A330-200 of Qatar Airways and an IndiGo A320 aircraft. The new method involved the use of runway 28 for all departures and runway 27 for all arrivals. This more streamlined model was adopted during day hours (– 2300 0600 – 2300 IST) until 24 September 2008.

On 21 August 2008, the airport inaugurated its third runway, 11R/29L, costing ₹1,000 crore and long. The runway has one of the world's longest paved threshold displacements of . This, in turn decreases the available landing length on runway 29L to . The reason for the long threshold displacement is the presence of a 263 m high Shiv statue, which is located near runway 29L. The runway increased the airport's capacity to handle up to 100 flights from the previous 45–60 flights per hour. The new runway was opened for commercial operations on 25 September 2008 and gradually began full round-the-clock operations by the end of October of the same year.

Since 2012, all three runways have been operated simultaneously to handle traffic during day hours. Only runways 11R/29L and 10/28 are operated during night (2300–0600 IST) hours with single runway landing restriction during westerly traffic flow that is rotated late night (0300 IST) and reversed weekly to distribute and mitigate night time landing noise over nearby residential areas.

To accommodate the demand for growing air traffic, the master plan for the construction of a fourth parallel runway next to the existing runway 11R/29L was cleared in 2017. along with the Eastern Cross Taxiways (ECT) - a pair of elevated parallel taxiways linking the northern part of the airport with the southern runways. It will be elevated as it will pass over the airport approach roads. It will be long and both the taxiways will be wide, with a wide gap separating the taxiways, making it capable of handling Airbus A380 and Boeing 747 type aircraft. It will help flights reducing duration to reach the southern runways from 9–10 minutes to only two minutes, as well as reducing pollution and traffic. The fourth runway and the ECT was inaugurated on 14 July 2023.

Terminals

IGI Airport serves as a major hub or a focus destination for several Indian carriers including Air India, Alliance Air, IndiGo, and SpiceJet. Approximately 80 airlines serve this airport. At present, there are three actively scheduled passenger terminals, as well as a cargo terminal.

In 2021, DIAL introduced an e-boarding facility for passengers at all the three terminals of the airport, by which all boarding gates will have contactless e-boarding gates with boarding card scanners, which will allow passengers to flash their physical or e-boarding cards to verify flight details in order to proceed for security checks. Terminal 3 is an integrated terminal used for both international and domestic flights. The Indian carriers operating international flights are Air India, IndiGo, and SpiceJet. The domestic side of Terminal 3 is used by Air India, Air India Express, and select flights of SpiceJet and IndiGo. Select flights of IndiGo use Terminal 2 for their domestic operations.

Currently operational terminals Terminal 1