COVID effect: Delhi airport to shut operations at T2 terminal from 17 May midnight

The Delhi international airport will shut down its T2 terminal from May 17 midnight as the number of flights have reduced significantly due to the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, sources said on Tuesday. From 17 May midnight, all flights will be handled at the T3 terminal only, they stated. Currently, the Delhi airport is handling around 325 flights per day, they mentioned. Before the pandemic, it used to handle around 1,500 flights per day. The Delhi airport’s decision has come at a time when India and its aviation sector has been badly hit by the second wave of the pandemic. During the last few weeks, the number of domestic air passengers per day have come from more than 2.2 lakh to around 75,000 right now, according to the Civil Aviation Ministry’s data. Similarly, international air traffic has also been affected by the second wave of the pandemic. New cases of coronavirus in India fell to 3.29 lakh after 14 days taking the total tally of COVID-19 infections to 2,29,92,517, according to the Union health ministry data updated on Tuesday. A total of 3,29,942 infections were reported in a span of 24 hours, while the death toll climbed to 2,49,992 with 3,876 fresh fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed.