NEW DELHI: The IAF air base in Hindon will soon start functioning as Delhi's second airport as the Indian Air Force has allowed the civil aviation ministry to use the air base for civil operations. The decision has been taken especially for upcoming flights under the government's regional connectivity scheme (RCS) as the Indira Gandhi international airport is already overcrowded. At the sidelines of a press conference, civil aviation secretary RN Choubey said the Air Force is open to allowing airlines under RCS to operate their flights from its air base in Hindon on the outskirts of Delhi.
The inexpensive air journeys on RCS flights are usually carried out on small aircraft, with 50-100 seat capacity. Under the round-2 of RCS, there is also no bar on operations from an airport which is 150 km from an existing airport. The Hindon air base in Ghaziabad is less than 150 km from Delhi airport.
Sources said that the ministry has already started consultations with the GMR Group-led Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) which is managing the Indira Gandhi International airport.
Talking to journalists, Choubey said, “We have to take GMR on board. We are reasonably confident that we will be in a position to sort out the contract related issues as far as Hindon is concerned. We see some small constraints for the small aircraft which are flying under the RCS scheme,” he explained, pointing out that small aircraft take a much longer time to clear the air field than the big ones.
Sources said that it was the government which had asked Air Force about the “feasibility” of civil operations from Hindon air base in the backdrop that there was significant demand for slots to operate RCS flights from Delhi and that Delhi airport might not be in a position to provide that many slots.
Delhi airport is the busiest airport in the country, with more than 1100 flights operating from it daily.
Choubey further said that the government is willing to initiate talks with other Air Force airports provided the airlines tell them they are ready to fly to more such defence air bases.
“For instance, we can consider air base in Purnia too. If an operator says it is keen to fly there we will take up the matter with the Air Force,” he said.
The secretary also indicated that Mumbai airport—which is the second most busy airport in the country--has not been included in the second round of bidding for RCS which started earlier this month as no slots are available to operate any new flights from Mumbai airport.
Pertinently, about 20 IAF air bases already have a civil enclave which means both defence, as well as passenger operations, take place from these airports. These include IAF bases like Gorakhpur, Allahabad and Bikaner and Naval bases like Goa's Dabolim and Vishakhapatnam.