Republic Day effect: Delhi Airport curbs for 6 days to impact thousands of passengers

AS if the suffering caused by murkiness wasn’t sufficiency this overwinter, passengers ar about to face further difficulties in travel from January 21 due to the closure of airspace over Delhi, keeping in mind the Republic Day safety protocols.The government on Tuesday released a NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) 1020 hours to 1245 hours for six days from January 21. The two-hour and twenty-five-minute closure will impact thousands of flights and disrupt connections, leading to delays and cancellations for passengers and handling misconnected passengers for the airlines.This is for practice, dress rehearsal and the actual Republic Day parade, an annual celebration that includes a parade, flypast and display of culture and military hardware along Kartavya Path. The NOTAM was released today, with just eight days remaining for closure. This will lead to a scramble for airlines to adjust their flights, verify the mis-connecting guests and reroute them or offer refunds and/or changes, an expensive proposition for the airlines.How many flights will be impacted?Data shared by Cirium, an aviation analytics company, exclusively for this article shows that a little over 600 flights will be impacted during this period. This period is one of the busiest periods at Delhi, with inbound passengers from across the country landing to connect to the afternoon bank of flights to Europe along with other destinations in India.The impact will be felt by thousands of passengers on a daily basis by means of cancellation, rescheduling, and disruptions.Also read: Delhi airport issues advisory, warns of flight delays amid dense fogWhy the closure?Such complete closures are needed for security reasons, to ensure the safety and security of aircraft involved in the flypast along with security of the dignitaries during the Republic Day celebration. The flights which are impacted may not necessarily be cancelled. However, they would certainly have a time change. Alternatively, passengers will be accommodated on a different flight at a different time. Since this period also coincides with the fog times in Delhi, on a particular day when the visibility drops, there could be chaos to handle as many flights and passengers in an even smaller operating window.What should the passengers do?If you are scheduled to fly in or out from Delhi at the specified timings and dates, ensure that the contact details are updated so that airlines can reach out at the earliest with the changes or cancellations. In the event of a cancellation, airlines typically provide alternative options or a full refund. Considering the last-minute change, airfares are likely to be higher than when the ticket was booked, and hence, opting for alternative options may be wiser.Airlines can act only when they are officially informed about the NOTAM, and thus, there will be a scramble to adjust or cancel flights and send IRROPS (Irregular Operations) messages among others while working with airports across the country at the same time to handle changes. Retiming flights may not always be possible due to its impact on other airports, and airports like Mumbai are already operating at full capacity. With Delhi Airport also operating at near-full capacity, changes to schedule are hard to come by and the system does not have any slack to handle as many flights before and after the closure.The impact of this closure will be felt at other airports as well, since aircraft routings don't work in isolation and for passengers that means being impacted with a schedule change for a flight which neither originates nor is destined for Delhi.Time to relook at announcement timing?As the government seeks to project Delhi as a hub for passenger transfers, such relatively last-minute announcements significantly impact many passengers, and a considerable number may opt for alternative travel options for future trips, potentially affecting airlines like Air India and IndiGo, as well as the hub projection for Delhi. While the closure of airspace is imperative and important for safety and security, advance warning and notice can be given much earlier, especially in the case of Republic Day, which is marked on the same date every year, and the airspace remains closed regardless of who the chief guest is.