The Indira Gandhi International Airport was built during the world war second and was known as Palam Airport. It also served Air force Station for the Indian Air force Station. It was renamed on the 2 March 1986 after Mrs. Indira who has been former prime minister of India. It is located in west Delhi, 16 Km (10 mi) Southwest of New Delhi city centre. It is operated by Delhi International Airport Private Limited (DIAL) and it is owned by Airport Authority of India. It has won the award for fourth best airport among 15-25 million categories. It has been considered as the best improved airport in the Asia-Pacific region by Airport Council International.
In May 2006; airport management had made a joint venture with GMR group which is also responsible now for the ongoing expansion and modernization of the airport. In May 2006, the management of the airport was transferred over to the private consortia. Its runway is the world's largest paved threshold displacement of 14600m.
Indira Gandhi International Airport has a separate Terminal for Hajj passengers. It has 6 terminals. Terminal 1A is the oldest and was built in early 1990. It is closed now and its flights have been transferred to the Terminal 1D. Terminal 1B is also closed after the opening of terminal 1D. Terminal 1C is also used for the domestic arrivals and departures. Terminal 1D is new and it has the capacity of handling 10 million passengers per year. The Terminal 3 which is built recently has the capacity to handle 34 million passengers annually since the beginning of Common Wealth Games 2010.
This Terminal has India's first automatic parking area which has multi storey car parking space. Indira Gandhi International Airport is the hub for many Indian airlines as Air India, Indigo, JetLite, Spice Jet, Kingfisher Airlines, and many others. And all these airlines use this airport as their second home. It is serving approximately 80 airlines. Currently it can handle 96 million passengers but it is planning to handle more than 100 million passengers by 2030s. It is also capable to face more than half of the air traffic in South Asia.
