Delhi’s Terminal 2 Airport operations begin on Saturday, with its first flight being a GoAir one. IndiGo and SpiceJet have been given till January 4 to move part of their flights to the refurbished terminal. Around a third of the flights operating out of Terminal 1 have to shift to Terminal 2.

T2 had so far been barely utilised – it was used for around three months a year to operate Haj pilgrimage flights. Delhi International Airport Pvt Ltd said it has spent Rs 100 crore to refurbish the terminal, which was opened in 1982, The Times of India reported.

IndiGo and SpiceJet will have to move their Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kolkata flights to T2 to decongest Terminal 1, because of a space crunch at T1 that will get worse when traffic increases this winter. GoAir is moving all its flights to T2. The terminal can manage a maximum of 12 crore passengers a year, which it is expected to have in the next five or six years, the report said. It can operate up to 73 flights an hour.

The terminal is connected to the airport metro line and is said to be within walking distance of both Terminals 1 and 3, though there will be a transfer facility as well.