Delhi Airport On Track To Achieve Global Hub Status As International Passenger Traffic Soars

The Delhi airport is expected to meet multiple global hub criteria within the next two years, driven by a steady rise in international passenger traffic and the addition of connecting flights, said Videh Kumar Jaipuriar, chief executive officer of Delhi International Airport Ltd.

"A global consultancy has conducted a study, identifying key benchmarks that Delhi airport must meet to qualify as an international hub," he told reporters on Friday. "One of the criteria is to have an international traffic of about 24 million. In 2024-25, we clocked about 21.6 million. We are expecting that in the next one to two years, we will go beyond 24 million international passengers per year."

International connecting traffic—a key indicator of hub strength—has also shown significant progress, he said. The study also found that international connecting traffic—whether domestic to international, international to international, or international to domestic —should be seven million or 33% of the total international traffic. Delhi airport currently handles six million international connecting traffic. So, that's a major improvement," the CEO said.

Similarly, in terms of long haul traffic which is crucial for global connectivity, the criteria is to hit 7 million, and currently Delhi handles 6.2 million.

DIAL is also converting a domestic pier at Terminal 3 to handle international flights to meet the overseas traffic growth after the massive expansion of operations by both Air India group and IndiGo.

"So, we are headed in the right direction," the CEO said, adding that the airport is in discussions to enhance air connectivity to the Asia Pacific region, including Australia and New Zealand.

Indian carriers have now captured over 50% of the international traffic share at the airport. As connectivity increases, and as wide-body planes of Indian carriers are also coming in, he expects the Delhi airport to become a global hub within two years.

Delhi airport has been taking steps to improve inter-terminal connectivity to support the growing volume of transfers between domestic and international flights. “While we are re-opening our Terminal 1 on April 15, we are also deploying an additional number of buses to ensure that the frequency of buses is less than 10 minutes,” he said.

The goal is to ensure that connecting times between any two terminals do not exceed 120 minutes, as committed to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, he said.

Jaipuriar raised concerns over jet fuel prices and expected some sort of relief in terms of lower value added tax. This comes ahead of the soon-to-be operational Greater Noida airport, where fuel is cheaper.

Delhi currently levies a high value added tax of 25% on aviation turbine fuel, which is higher than the 1% VAT charged in Uttar Pradesh for its new airport at Jewar.

"We have made requests to the government, and the aviation ministry has also requested the concerned department of the state government to lower VAT...so we are expecting within a few months there will be a much better level-playing field as compared to some neighbouring states. Consequently, one can expect reduction in the passenger fare as well."

India's busiest airport is also preparing to tackle the peak summer rush, with traffic set to hit records. "We have already reduced wait times by more than 20% by using an AI-based tool," he added.

Delhi airport has seen strong traffic recovery, handling 78.9 million passengers over the past year, a 6% increase over the previous year. Of these, international passengers comprised 21.5 million while balance comprised domestic. "While traditionally domestic traffic grew faster than international, we saw equal percentage growth in both domestic and international segments last fiscal," the CEO said.