Delhi's IGI airport may have third airway in operation by end of month

New Delhi: The Indira Gandhi International airport at New Delhi will soon boast of a third runway that will go a long way towards boosting flight-handling capacity at the airport, which is the country's busiest after Mumbai. According to reports, with the runway expected to be ready soon the ministry  of civil aviation is expected to finalise 21 August as the date for test flights and may start commercial operations a week thereafter.

With the three runways in use simultaneously, the flight handling capacity of the airport will go up from the current 35 flights an hour to around 60.

At present, calibration work on navigational aids is taking place on the runway.

Reports suggest that civil aviation minister Praful Patel may very likely be present at a ceremony held to celebrate the landing of the first few flights on the runway. The first flight very likely will be that  of Air India, followed by a flight each of Jet Airways, Kingfisher Airlines and IndiGo.

All four flights are expected to land within an hour.