Delhi HC seeks Centre on DIAL’s plea over use of Hindon airport for commercial flights

Delhi High Court seeks Centre's response on Delhi International Airport Ltd plea over Hindon airport commercial flight operations.

The Delhi High Court on Monday asked the Centre to respond to a plea of Delhi International Airport Ltd, which runs the Indira Gandhi International Airport, over the permission given to the Airport Authority of India to start commercial flight operations from Hindon airport in Ghaziabad.

Justice Sachin Datta issued notice on the two petitions filed by Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) and granted two weeks to the Centre and the Airport Authority of India (AAI) to submit their responses. The court posted the case for further hearing on April 28.

During the hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, opposed DIAL’s plea saying that over a hundred flights were scheduled to take off every week from the Hindon airport, for which tickets were sold in advance. The Solicitor General also commented that monopolisation was not permitted.

On the other hand, appearing for DIAL, senior advocate Maninder Singh said that the decision to commence flight operation from an airport within an aerial distance of 150 kilometre of IGI airport was in violation of the policy and the “state support agreement” between it and the authorities.

Mr Singh argued that there was an obligation on the authorities to ensure no other airport was allowed to operate near IGI, unless the airport reached its saturation, as it would make it unviable.

DIAL’s plea said the Centre took the decision in October 2023 to start commercial flights from Hindon “unilaterally and in undue haste” without even giving an opportunity of hearing.

Its plea said a defence aerodrome, such as Hindon, could not be considered an airport for civilian use. It added that the Centre failed to record any reason for necessitating use of the military airfield to operate commercial flights.