Slowly but steadily, Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport is making strategic strides toward transforming itself into India’s first aviation hub. In a recent development, the airport turned its focus to streamlining the inter-terminal baggage transfer process and the good news is that passengers will soon be relieved of the baggage transfer hassles when shifting between terminals to catch their connecting flight at New Delhi Airport.
Once the internal baggage transfer system is in place, you won’t be required to go through the baggage claim and recheck-in procedure for your connecting flight. No doubt, this is a welcome move for international passengers with onward domestic connection in view of the non-availability of through baggage check-in at India’s busiest and biggest airport. The upcoming facility will ensure seamless domestic to international, domestic to domestic, and international to domestic connections.
The checked baggage regulation, first introduced in 2022, requires inbound international passengers to collect their checked bags after arrival at the port of entry and then re-check-them for the connecting flight to their final destination. Considering the time-consuming post-arrival processes, the inter-terminal baggage system will be a relief for travelers booking international flights to New Delhi IGI Airport, the primary gateway to India for most nonstop flights from USA, Europe, and other countries.
Reportedly, the pilot trial for seamless baggage transfer across all three terminals (T1, T2, and T3) is underway, and an early baggage store facility is also being set up at the airport to safeguard passenger baggage in the event of long layovers. The airport is also planning to expedite immigration process to facilitate hassle-free transition between domestic and international flights.
A smooth interterminal transfer facility (for passenger transit as well as baggage transfer) is crucial to the success of any airport hub besides a bunch of other aspects like geographical location, strong global connectivity, major airlines, heavy passenger traffic, and advanced infrastructure among others. While IGI DEL Airport ticks almost all of these boxes, it falls behind most global hubs as far as inter-terminal transfer is concerned. The plans to augment the passenger transit infrastructure with an interterminal air train are also underway. The upcoming automated people mover/air train at Delhi Airport – the first such facility in India – would make interterminal transit faster and more convenient for passengers than the existing shuttle transport system.
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Great service , would be smooth transfer customer experience .
Wondering when this would be opened