'Bags left behind, check-in chaos': Delhi airport's T1 opens full throttle, but fails to carry baggage burden

NEW DELHI: Day one of Delhi Airport's Terminal 1 (T1) becoming fully operational after nearly a year was marred by chaos as the terminal's check-in baggage belt system developed snags multiple times on Tuesday.
The glitches slowed down the check-in process, forcing airlines operating from T1—primarily IndiGo, followed by Akasa and SpiceJet—to handle passengers' check-in baggage manually wherever possible. As a result, a significant number of passengers flew out of T1 without their checked-in luggage.
Airlines have stated they are working to send the left-behind bags over the next day or two, depending on how quickly the issue is resolved.
The situation worsened as Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) shut down Terminal 2 (T2) at midnight on Monday-Tuesday, just as T1 became fully operational—without waiting for the latter to overcome the teething issues typically associated with any large-scale infrastructure project.
"We did several things to overcome this day one challenge at T1 by allowing passengers to carry more than the usual cabin baggage limit onboard, and by delaying flights— with ATC permission—by 5–10 minutes to allow as many bags to be manually loaded as possible," airline officials said.
They clarified that the issue with the baggage belt occurred at the security check and the point where bags are transferred to trolleys for loading onto aircraft.
"DIAL asked us to shift fully to T1 without the infrastructure being ready. This is surprising, as the terminal has been ready for over a year now, and the systems should have been thoroughly tested by this time. T2 should have been closed only after all systems at T1—operating for the first time at 100% capacity—had stabilised," airline officials added.
The first report of the technical snag came on Tuesday morning. Delhi Airport acknowledged the issue on X at 2.22 pm, stating, "We experienced a technical issue at baggage check-in at T1 that slowed down the baggage check-in for some time. Flight operations were not impacted due to this. Our team, with stakeholders, worked on it, and operations are normalised now. Apologies for the brief inconvenience caused."
However, the issue resurfaced in the evening. At 5:42 pm, DIAL posted on X again: "We are currently experiencing intermittent baggage check-in system issues at T1. This has already been escalated to the global OEM (original equipment manufacturer) for urgent resolution… working with stakeholders to resolve on priority."
An airport official confirmed that the morning snag had not been fully resolved, leading to its recurrence in the evening. "It has slowed down the process, but there has been no impact on flight operations," the official claimed.
Airline officials also expressed concern over the timing of the T2 closure, saying it left no room to stabilise T1 operations. "New projects are known to have teething troubles. DIAL should have kept T2 open until T1 had gotten over them," they said.
Meanwhile, airlines advised passengers about potential delays due to the glitch. IndiGo informed, "Please be advised that due to a temporary baggage belt failure at Delhi Airport, you may experience slightly longer wait times during check-in and while collecting your baggage upon arrival. Our teams are working closely with airport partners to resolve the issue quickly and support customers on the ground." SpiceJet also said it was working with airport authorities to address the problem.
The newly-expanded T1 was inaugurated on March 10 last year, but the new section had not been made operational. In June, after a canopy collapse at T1 resulted in the death of a cab driver, all operations from the terminal were suspended. Partial operations from the revamped terminal resumed in August, but full-scale operations only began on Tuesday.