New Delhi: The Indian Air Force has agreed to allow the use of its Hindon airbase in the Ghaziabad district of western UP bordering Delhi for civilian flights under the government’s regional connectivity scheme, civil aviation secretary R.N. Choubey said on Wednesday.
The move will reportedly help to take the load off Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport which is facing slot constraints with Hindon serving as the “second” airport in the national capital region for flights operating under the scheme.
“In the second round of bidding for RCS, we expect a significant demand for slots for Delhi airport. We recognise that it will be difficult for DIAL to provide all the slots and we have pre-emptively taken up the matter with the IAF, which has gone out of the way to co-operate with us and make its airbase available to us,” Mr Choubey was quoted saying.
The operation of civil aircraft from the airbase on the outskirts of Delhi are likely to start during the winter schedule which comes into effect from the last Sunday of October.
The government, however, needs to bring on board the IGI airport operator, the Delhi International Airport Limited, in order to seek relaxation of the rule which disallows commercial operations of flights from a second airport within 150 kms of an existing one.
