Not Enough Parking Space At Delhi Airports For VVIP Planes During G20 Summit; Govt Looks At Nearby Cities

By OB Bureau On Aug 21, 2023

New Delhi: It turns out that Delhi doesn’t have enough space to accommodate VVIP aircraft for the G20 Summit next month. About 50 special aircraft are expected to land at the two Delhi airports, whereas both the Indira Gandhi International Airport and the IAF base in Palam jointly have the capacity for 40 airplanes only. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) is exploring options to direct the rest to other cities such as Amritsar, Jaipur, Lucknow, and Indore.

At a recent coordination meeting chaired by the chief of protocol from the MEA, it was discussed that 50 VVIP aircraft are set to land and 13 heads of state or delegates are expected to come in commercial flights, according to The Indian Express (IE).

Special details of these aircraft, including their configuration, date, time, etc will be known later. The special airplanes will be parked in Bay-1 and Bay-3, which are very close to the ceremonial lounge, sources told IE.

The meeting was attended by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Indian Air Force (IAF), Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) Bureau of Civil Aviation Security, Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Intelligence Bureau, and Customs.

According to the report, there was also a suggestion to close one of the runways of IGI and use it as a parking space. However, representatives of the Delhi airport said that all runways needed to be free for landings during the summit.

Since the beginning of this month, the civil aviation ministry has been discussing with all the stakeholders to relocate the grounded aircraft from Delhi to nearby airports, news agency ANI said. Approximately 70-80 aircraft are currently parked at the Delhi airport due to various reasons such as engine replacements, and technical issues among others, a government official told the news agency ANI.

The G20 Leaders’ Summit will be held on September 9-10 at the Bharat Mandapam convention centre (earlier Pragati Maidan).