India's Delhi airport operations normal after power cut impacts baggage, e-gate services

By Aditi Shah

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - A power outage lasting several minutes at India's busiest airport in Delhi caused minor disruptions to some services within the terminal on Monday, airport management said.

"Voltage imbalance from the Delhi Transco Limited (DTL) grid briefly impacted all IGI terminals, affecting baggage acceptance and e-gates," a spokesperson for Delhi International Airport said.

The Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport in the capital New Delhi, owned and run by GMR Airports, has three terminals for commercial and cargo flights.

The power back-up system was started within a few minutes and the main power supply was restored shortly after, the spokesperson added.

Air conditioners in the terminal stopped working during the outage which lasted about 7 minutes, but were restored soon after, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Temperatures in the capital have soared to record breaking levels in recent weeks, with water shortages and frequent power cuts adding to residents' woes.

One airline source, who did not want to be named, said the power outage could cause check-in and boarding delays.

June is typically a busy month for the airline industry in India as schools are shut for the summer break.

Some social media users posted images of passengers standing in long queues at check-in counters as airline officials waited for computers to power up again.

India is one of the world's fastest-growing aviation markets with domestic air travel expected to double to 300 million passengers from a record 152 million in 2023, according to government data.

(Reporting by Aditi Shah and Tanvi Mehta; Editing by Ros Russell and Bernadette Baum)