The Delhi airport will resume flight operations at its T1 terminal from October 31 onwards after almost 18 months of closure, said its operator DIAL on Friday.

The T3 terminal and the T2 terminal of the Delhi airport resumed handling flight operations from May 25, 2020, and July 22, 2021, respectively, the GMR group-led DIAL mentioned. With the resumption of operations at the third terminal, Delhi Airport will be functional completely.

“After almost 18 months of closure, the operations at T1 terminal will resume with pre-Covid operators, i.e. IndiGo and SpiceJet,” said the statement by Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL). The first flight scheduled from T1 after its reopening would be an Indigo flight which will depart for Mumbai at 0105 hours, it mentioned.

The T1 terminal did not handle any flights since March 25, 2020, when scheduled domestic flights were suspended for a two-month period due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown. “With the resumption of the third terminal, Delhi Airport will be functional completely. We would like to assure passengers that at Delhi airport, they would be in a safe and healthy environment, said Videh Kumar Jaipuriar, CEO, DIAL.

According to aviation industry sources, carriers are currently operating around 70 per cent of their pre-Covid domestic passenger flights within India and approximately 20 per cent of pre-Covid international passenger flights from India.

(Cover: Getty images)