Indira Gandhi International Airport’s (IGIA) brand new runway 11-29 saw its inaugural landing recently, making the airport India’s first and among the very few civilian airports in Asia to have three operating runways.
The first touch down was made by a special flight by an Air India Boeing 777 which was given the traditional water cannon salute. The runway has been developed by Delhi International Airport (P) Limited (DIAL), a GMR Group led Joint Venture Consortium mandated to operate and modernise the IGI Airport under the Public Private Partnership Initiative of Govt. of India.
Completed more than six months ahead of scheduled date of February 2009, the 75 metre wide runway is among the longest in Asia at 4,430 metres. Built to Code F standards, the runway is capable of handling new generation large aircraft such as the Airbus A380.