Airport
Delhi Indira Gandhi Airport (DEL)
Indira Gandhi is the country's front door and its busiest interchange at the same time: most long-haul arrivals land here, and a large share of domestic flying passes through on the way to somewhere else. Three terminals sit on one campus southwest of Delhi, served by a metro line, a hotel district of its own and a domestic network that reaches every corner of the country. It is an easy airport once you know which building you are using, and a long day when you do not.
Updated 2026-09-22
- CodesDEL · VIDP
- Passengers per year (2024)77,820,834
- Elevation237 m
- ServesNew Delhi
- Official websitenewdelhiairport.in
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T1, T2 and T3: read the boarding pass, not the map
The terminals are divided by carrier, not by destination. T3 is the large one — every international flight uses it, along with much domestic traffic — and it handles both under one roof, so many connections never leave the building. T1 and T2 are domestic, each with its own list of airlines, and those lists are occasionally rearranged. The flight number on your booking names the terminal; no guide can.
The three do not connect airside, and no metro line joins them. A shuttle bus runs the loop instead, on a coupon issued at each terminal's shuttle point against a boarding pass: passengers with an onward flight ride free, everyone else pays at the kiosk. Counting the road transfer, a fresh security queue and a second check-in, a terminal change is a leg of the journey rather than a formality.
Two metro lines, one airport
The Airport Express, the orange line on the network map, runs from New Delhi railway station on the northern edge of the planned capital district straight to T3 and onward to the Dwarka side of the city. One stop short of the terminal it calls at Aerocity, the hotel quarter beside the airfield, which makes it the natural link for anyone staying there. It runs through its own fare gates, separate from the rest of the system.
T1 sits on a different line entirely, the magenta one, with no rail connection to T3 — the detail that catches travellers who assume one airport means one station. At ground level, the police-run prepaid taxi counter inside arrivals prices the ride before you leave the building, while the ride-hailing pickup points are signed from the car parks opposite. After a late landing, the counter is the calmer of the two.
Arrivals: the border, the green channel and what not to pack
Nearly every visitor needs a visa in hand before boarding, because airlines check it at the departure gate — what your nationality needs belongs to the entry rules for India. Immigration comes before the baggage belts. The automated lanes are built for enrolled Indian passport and overseas-citizen holders, so most foreign arrivals still meet an officer at a desk, and the hall is fullest when the overnight wave from Europe and the Gulf lands together.
Customs is a green-channel walk unless you are carrying something declarable, and one prohibition catches people regularly: vaping devices and their liquids are banned outright in the country, and one found in a bag is confiscated at best. Indian currency is restricted for non-residents too, which is why the arrivals hall keeps bank counters and machines — the rest of that ground belongs to money in India.
Fog season, and why Delhi connections need slack
The one predictable disruption here is winter fog. From late autumn into the cold months, dense fog settles over the plain at dawn and the airport moves to low-visibility procedures: suitably equipped aircraft and qualified crews keep working, and everything else waits, diverts or is cancelled. A morning that begins in fog is still showing up in the evening departure boards.
That matters most to journeys stitched together by the traveller. A domestic flight bought on a separate ticket from the long-haul one carries no protection when the first leg slips, and the same applies in reverse on the way home. Through-ticketing, a generous buffer and — where the trip allows it — an afternoon domestic connection rather than a dawn one are the answers that actually work.
Aerocity, lounges and a night between flights
Aerocity is what makes Delhi an easy place to break a journey: a purpose-built hotel district next to the airfield, running from modest rooms to full-service towers, with hotel shuttles working the terminal kerbs. Inside T3 there is a transit hotel airside along with rest and shower facilities, which is what you want when the next departure comes before the roads are worth using.
Whether you can leave at all is a paperwork question rather than a timing one: there is no look-around allowance for transit passengers, so stepping outside means clearing immigration on a valid visa. Those who can, and who have most of a day, take the express into the city; the airport's own surroundings hold nothing worth the trip except a bed and a meal.
Onward travel, and the small print at the door
Delhi is where most itineraries begin. The domestic terminals feed the entire country, car-hire desks and pre-booked drivers work the arrivals kerb, and the express reaches a main railway station directly, which puts the overnight trains that travel in India runs on within one ride of the terminal. It is the standard starting point for the Golden Triangle and the usual first hop toward the mountains.
Two local habits save trouble on the way out. Only ticketed passengers pass the terminal doors — security checks a booking and an identity document at the entrance, so anyone seeing you off says goodbye on the kerb — and an Indian prepaid SIM takes paperwork and a wait to activate, so an eSIM bought before departure is the frictionless answer. Winter air quality belongs to the same season as the fog; health and safety in India covers it.