T4, city’s 2nd domestic terminal, begins operation

CHENNAI: The second domestic terminal (T4) at the Chennai airport began functioning on Wednesday.

The decision to operate a second terminal at Chennai airport was taken to ease passengers’ convenience after the domestic terminal (T1) became congested. One of the busiest airports in India, Chennai airport operates an average 400 flights every day and sees around 60,000 passengers.

As part of the airport expansion work, the Integrated Terminal of the airport (T2), constructed at Rs 1,260 crore in 1.36 lakh square metres, was inaugurated in April and it became fully functional in July. Following this, the old terminals T3 and T4 were closed AAI began the second phase of expansion with demolishing T3. However, as the T4 terminal, earlier functioning as an International terminal was a new building, the officials decided to operate it as a domestic terminal to avoid congestion.

The work, started in July and the trial run was conducted on Tuesday. An Air India flight, arrived from Port Blair, was made to land in the terminal and another Air India flight departed to Bangalore from T4 on Tuesday.

Airport officials said all the Air India and Alliance air flights will be operated from the T4 terminal from Wednesday. Indigo and other Airlines will be operated from T1.