Delhi's IGI Airport becomes 2nd busiest airport in the world, beats Dubai International Airport

The Delhi airport was at the 23rd spot in March 2019 before the pandemic, and continued jumping places before registering 2nd spot in March 2022.

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Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport has been ranked the world's second busiest airport in March 2022 in terms of domestic and international flights handled, as per a study by Official Airline Guide (OAG), a global travel data provider. The GMR-run airport was ranked at the third spot as per OAG in February 2022 and trumped the Dubai International Airport (DXB) to gain a spot in the ranking.

United States' Atlanta airport was ranked as the busiest airport in the world and retained its top spot. "Whilst Atlanta retains its position as largest, Dubai is knocked out of second place this month (March) by Delhi which moves up from third place last month (February)," the OAG's report mentioned.

Interestingly, the Delhi airport was ranked on the 23rd place in March 2019 before the pandemic, and has jumped 21 spots to reach the position. In March this year, airports in Atlanta in the US, Delhi in India and Dubai in the UAE handled 4.42 million, 3.61 million and 3.55 million seats, it mentioned.

In a statement, Videh Kumar Jaipuriar, CEO, Delhi Airport International Limited (DIAL), said, "COVID-19 pandemic had hit the world hard. Travel restrictions had badly affected the travel and tourism sectors for two consecutive years." But now, with the rise in the number of vaccinated people across the world, governments are easing travel restrictions and slowly opening up their borders, he said.

"India has last month opened its borders and allowed the entry of fully vaccinated international travellers into the country," he said.

These steps have largely helped the travel and tourism industry and given a much-needed boost to air travel, he said.