Indira Gandhi International Airport - Runways

Runways

Delhi Airport has two parallel runways and a near-parallel runway: Runway 11/29 (14,794 ft (4500m)) with CAT IIIB ILS on both sides and the main runway 10/28 (12,795 ft (3,900 m)) as well as an auxiliary runway 09/27 (13,780 ft (4,200 m)). Runway 10/28 and Runway 11/29 are the only two in South Asia to have been equipped with the CAT III-B instrument landing system. 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 350 m (1,150 ft) 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 method of simultaneous takeoffs caused several near misses over west side of the airport where the centerlines of Runways 10/28 and 9/27 intersect. The runway use method was changed to segregate dependent mode from 25th Dec 2007 which was a few days after the deciding near miss involving a Qatar airways Airbus A330-200 and an Indigo A320 aircraft. The new method involved use of Runway 28 for all departures and Runway 27 for all arrivals. This method which was more streamlined was followed full-time till 24 September 2008.

On 21 August 2008, the airport inaugurated its 3rd runway 11/29 costing Rs 1000 crore and 4.43 km long. The runway has one of the world's longest paved threshold displacement of 1460m. This inturn decreases the available landing length on Runway 29 to 2970m. The purpose of this large threshold displacemnt is primarily to reduce noise generated by landing aircraft over nearby localities. The runway increases the airport's capacity to handle 85 flights from the previous 54-60 flights per hour. The new runway was opened for commercial operations on 25 September 2008. Presently runways 11/29 and 10/28 operate in mixed mode where all low cost carrier and cargo aircraft use 10/28 and the rest use runway 11/29, runway 9/27 used as a taxiway and put in use as a runway only during unavailability of 11/29 or 10/28. Trials for simultaneous use of all the runways is expected to start on June 6, 2012. To reduce the stress on the airport's main runway 28/10 during peak hours, all three runways will be operated simultaneously.