Old Int'l Terminal (T4) closed for months, set to function as domestic terminal

CHENNAI: The old International Terminal (T4) which was closed a few months ago is set to function as a domestic terminal from Wednesday.

The AAI said that all the modification works have been completed and the terminal is ready to handle the flight operations.

The Chennai airport is one of the busiest airports in India. The airport operates an average of 400 flights every day and passenger footfall records around 60,000 a day.

As the footfall is increasing day by day the AAI started to expand the airport and the work was planned in two phases.

The first phase of the work was finished and The Integrated Terminal of the Chennai airport (T2) which was constructed at Rs 1,260 crores in 1.36 lakh square meters was inaugurated in April and became fully functional in July.

After the Integrated terminal started to operate fully the old existing terminals T3 and T4 were closed.

The T3 terminal demolishing work was started ahead of the phase two work of the Chennai airport expansion.

Meanwhile, the AAI announced that the old International Terminal T4 will function as the second domestic terminal to avoid congestion in the airport. The officials said that the T4 terminal would start to function in September and then postponed it to October but now its terminal is all set to operate from November 15.

The airport officials said that the trial run will be conducted on Tuesday. The Air India flight that arrives from Andaman would land in the T4 terminal and the Air India flight to Bangalore would depart from the same terminal.

Following that from Wednesday all the Air India and Alliance Air flights will be operated in the T4 Terminal. Airport sources said later in a month or two all the flights like Indigo, Vistara and Spice Jet would start to operate in the T4 Terminal. The officials believe that this would avoid congestion in the Domestic terminal during the peak hours.