By IANS,
New Delhi: An Air India flight from New York will be the first flight to operate from the swanky new terminal-3 (T3) at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here Wednesday.
But the AI-120 and subsequent eight flights, including an Airbus A380, Wednesday and Thursday will be part of a drill to reaffirm the operational readiness of the terminal.
“This will be the first of the series of nine ‘Terminal Process Proving Flights’ that will arrive or depart from the new terminal on July 14th and 15th,” a DIAL statement said.
Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) authorities earlier pushed back the initial operation start date by 14 days to provide more time to all stakeholders to deal with any glitches, including setting up of airline offices, synchronising security procedures, baggage handling and the whole range of airport operations.
So Wednesday, as part of the real-time drill, Jet Airways will fly the first international outbound flight to Dubai from the terminal, followed by first domestic flight from the national capital to Jaipur, Rajasthan on Air India.
“Passengers traveling by these nine flights (July 14 and July 15) are being informed individually by their respective airlines. Flight information is also being displayed on standees at terminal 2. The information about flights arriving and departing from Terminal 3 will also be displayed prominently at various points on the eight lane road from Hotel Radisson to Terminal 3,” DIAL said in a statement.
The terminal “proving flights” come after extensive trial runs at the sixth largest passenger terminal in the world which was dedicated to the nation by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh July 3.