NEW DELHI: The capital’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) is now the world’s 12th busiest airport — moving up four places from the 16th spot in 2017 — by overtaking mega hubs like the

, Dallas Forth Worth, Guangzhou and Istanbul Ataturk airports.

According to the preliminary world airport traffic rankings for 2018 released by Airports Council International (ACI), IGIA was the fastest growing among the top 20 airports. The airport saw 6.9 crore domestic and international flyers in 2018, 10.2% points more than the combined passengers of 2017. In terms of passenger growth, only Seoul’s Incheon International, at the 16th place in 2018 with 10% point growth, was close to Delhi.

The four airports just above Delhi — Amsterdam Schiphol, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Shanghai Pudong and Hong Kong — handled just up to 46 lakh passengers more than IGIA. Had the Delhi airport’s expansion not been hugely delayed as they are, IGIA may have even made it to the top 10 last year itself. India being the world’s fastest growing aviation market and Delhi its busiest airport, IGIA is to grow strongly once the infra expansion takes place.

“India became the world’s third-largest aviation market in terms of passenger throughput, behind the US and China, in 2018. India’s move towards a more liberalised aviation market and the nation’s strengthening economic fundamentals have helped it become one of the fastest-growing markets with its traffic growing rapidly in a relatively short time,” according to a statement by ACI, the global representative of the world’s airports.

“With the cost of travel decreasing in many markets, and a burgeoning middle class growing in emerging markets, passenger traffic growth has remained irrepressible. ACI’s global medium-term forecasts reveal that the growth in demand between 2018 and 2023 will grow by almost 30%,” said ACI World director general Angela Gittens said. “This means many national governments face the predicament of demand outstripping available airport infrastructure.”

India is likely to be one such country. IGIA has seen slow and delayed infra upgrade despite being one of the world’s fastest growing airports. The airport management had almost two years ago unveiled a plan to upgrade terminals 1 and 3 and build the fourth runway, but all are still some years from completion.

Given the huge volume of traffic and the need for passengers to transit between T1 and T2-3, the government had in 2017 told Parliament that Delhi International Airport Pvt Ltd proposed to have a 5.5km-long automated people mover or air train between its terminals by 2020. But the work is yet to begin. However, IGIA still has tremendous scope for expansion. Most airports busier than IGIA have saturated in terms of capacity. For example, “after years of double digit percentage traffic growth”, Dubai Airport grew by 1% point in 2018.