Non-scheduled flights barred from Delhi airspace for three days
The AAI restriction runs 7am to 11pm from 11 to 13 September. Scheduled airlines keep flying; charters and private jets do not.
Non-scheduled flights are barred from Delhi's airspace between 7am and 11pm from 11 to 13 September, under restrictions notified by the Airports Authority of India ahead of the BRICS summit.
The bar covers the hours in which almost all daytime flying happens. Regular scheduled airline services continue, as do flights carrying summit dignitaries — more than 30 special flights are expected over the three days.
What a non-scheduled flight is
The distinction decides who is affected, and it is not the one most passengers would assume.
Scheduled services are the published, ticketed airline operations that make up ordinary commercial traffic at Indira Gandhi International. Non-scheduled flights are everything else that flies on demand: private and business jets, charters, air taxis, general aviation and survey or training flights.
So a passenger on a booked airline ticket is not grounded by this notification. A company flying its own aircraft into Delhi, or a charter operator with a booking for Saturday morning, is.
The restriction was notified on Thursday and runs 7am to 11pm daily across the three days, according to sources cited by ANI. It leaves a window overnight.
Why airspace, and not just runways
Restricting the air above a city is a different kind of measure from closing a road, and it is done for a specific reason.
When heads of state fly in and out over a compressed period — and more than 30 special flights are expected — the controlled airspace around the airport has to accommodate arrivals that cannot be held in stacks or diverted at short notice. Removing unpredictable traffic from that airspace is what makes those movements manageable.
There is also the security dimension the notification does not spell out. Delhi Police and central agencies have deployed anti-drone systems as part of the summit arrangements, and Intelligence Bureau assessments have flagged possible drone activity among attempts to disrupt VVIP movement. An airspace clear of light aircraft and charters is an airspace in which anything unexpected is easier to identify.
One part of a three-way squeeze
The airspace curbs land alongside restrictions on the other two ways into central Delhi, and the dates line up exactly.
On the roads, Delhi Police have placed more than 35 stretches under traffic control and identified 22 diversion points, with the tightest restrictions around motorcade movements between Palam, the Chanakyapuri hotels and Bharat Mandapam.
On the railways, around 120 trains over the Delhi Division are being cancelled, diverted, rescheduled, short-originated or short-terminated between 11 and 13 September — including six Rajdhani services diverted away from their usual path out of New Delhi.
Taken together, the three sets of restrictions cover the same 72 hours and the same corridor.
What it means for getting to the airport
The practical advice for passengers has little to do with the airspace notification and everything to do with the ground.
Delhi Police have recommended using the Metro to reach Indira Gandhi International, because road restrictions around motorcade windows can close a corridor at short notice. A scheduled flight that departs on time is of limited use to a passenger held on Mathura Road.
The airspace restriction does mean the airport will be handling an unusual mix over the weekend: normal scheduled traffic, plus more than 30 special flights, with the general aviation that normally fills the gaps removed from the picture.
Who is exempt, and how far the restriction reaches
The measure is wider than the airport itself. According to the report, the special security arrangements bar all take-offs and landings at Indira Gandhi International and at other airports within a 300km radius of Delhi, with only specified flights permitted across the three days.
The exemption list is narrow and worth reading in full, because it defines what will be in the sky. Regular scheduled airline services continue. So do special flights carrying BRICS dignitaries and associated flights, subject to Air Traffic Control approving their flight plans in advance — those are treated as scheduled services for the purpose of the restriction. Flights operated by the Indian Air Force, the Border Security Force and the Aviation Research Centre are also permitted.
A 300km radius takes in a substantial part of northern India's airfields, which is why the restriction is described as an airspace measure rather than an airport one.
The window that stays open
The restriction's timing is the detail charter operators will focus on. Barring non-scheduled flights from 7am to 11pm leaves eight hours overnight in which they can still operate.
That is not generosity; it is how the summit's own logistics work. Leaders arrive and depart in daylight, delegations and their equipment often do not, and the three Russian transport aircraft that made Noida International Airport's first foreign landing earlier this week are an example of how summit freight gets moved around the main airport's constraints.
The restrictions lift after 13 September, by which point the leaders will have gone and the city gets its airspace, its roads and its trains back.
