Chaos on at Delhi airport: 36 flights cancelled, 40 get delayed

NEW DELHI: Flight were impacted for the second day at Delhi Airport after the operations at Terminal-1 were suspended indefinitely on Friday. Over 36 flights were cancelled on Saturday and over 40 were delayed.
IndiGo cancelled 23 flights and SpiceJet two at T-1 on Saturday till 6.30 pm. Six IndiGo flights were cancelled at T-2 and one each of IndiGo and Alliance airlines at T-3 till Saturday evening.
After the operations at Terminal-1 were suspended, all departures and arrivals of IndiGo were shifted to both T-2 and T-3, while operations of SpiceJet were moved to T-2.Only domestic flights of IndiGo and SpiceJet operate from T-1, averaging 200 flights a day including arrivals and departures.
Passengers claimed that they received messages about the delay. Ayushman, who had booked a flight from Kolkata to New Delhi, said, “My flight on Saturday was initially scheduled to arrive at T-1, but I was informed that it will now land at T-2.”
The service at Delhi airport was hit after the canopy at the forecourt of Terminal-1 at Indira Gandhi International Airport collapsed around 5 am on Friday, killing one and injuring eight people. Soon after the incident, the departure at T-1 was suspended. While arrivals continued till 10.30 am, it was then shifted to other terminals.
The canopy, spanning from departure gates 1 to 2, collapsed due to heavy rain. Due to this incident, the new T-1 building, which was expected to become operational by next month, may be affected as they both have a common ramp, said airport officials.
Though the newly constructed and expanded T-1 was inaugurated in March, it is yet to become operational. The expanded T-1 can serve 40 million passengers per annum, more than double its previous capacity. The overall area of the expanded T-1 has been tripled from earlier 55,740 sqm to 206,950 sqm.