Vladimir Putin arrived at Air Force Station Palam on Friday, received by minister of state for external affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh, ahead of talks with Narendra Modi and the 18th BRICS Summit at Bharat Mandapam on 12 and 13 September. Xi Jinping is due tommorow, in India for about a day and also scheduled to meet Modi. The presidential aircraft did not use a commercial pier at Indira Gandhi International. They used the military and VVIP side of the same airport complex, where stands are guarded, taxis are short and the convoy leaves without crossing a public terminal. That is the visible half of the operation. The working half is a four-field parking plan built so Delhi’s scheduled bank does not collide with thirty-five special aircraft.
The first foreign aeroplanes at Noida International were not a passenger inaugural. Three Russian military transports, including an Ilyushin Il-76, landed at Jewar around 5.30 a.m. on Tuesday with an advance team, security kit and support stores. They sat through Wednesday while Indian and Russian details worked the ground. Palam holds up to twelve VVIP slots. IGI has reserved about twelve special-flight bays, six widebody and six narrowbody, so ordinary long-haul can keep moving on Pier C and the older international fingers. Noida has about twelve bays for overflow and logistics. Hindon offers around ten. Jaipur and Lucknow sit on standby if a diversion is needed. September 11 is the heavy arrival day. China, Kazakhstan and Vietnam are expected on the 12th. The ministries, IAF, AAI, DIAL, NIAL, CISF, BCAS and Delhi Police are running one sheet. The sheet only works if each field does a different job.
Airspace is the other half of the machine. From 11 September 1.30 a.m. UTC to 13 September 5.30 p.m. UTC, non-scheduled flights inside 300 kilometres of Delhi need home-ministry clearance. Scheduled airlines and approved summit movements continue. Climbing traffic must be at Flight Level 290 by 200 kilometres from the city. Arrivals may leave that level only once they are that far out. Safdarjung is closed except for named IAF, BSF and NSG helicopters. Rohini Helipad is shut. Flight schools in seven states cannot start an engine. A new civil airport that has barely begun passenger life is already a state logistics field. Palam is the front door. IGI is the timetable. Hindon is the spare hangar. Noida is the proof that the NCR can absorb a summit without turning T3 into a car park of Il-76s.
That is the aviation story under the bilateral photographs. India is not only hosting leaders. It is stress-testing whether four aerodromes, one restricted FIR and a brand-new runway at Jewar can behave as a single system for sixty hours. If they can, the next big Delhi event has a map. If they cannot, the 300-kilometre bubble will have taught the same lesson as every improvised VIP NOTAM. Scheduled passengers get through. Everyone else waits for the convoy to leave.