Announcements at T3 now made in 11 languages

Oct. 11, 2011

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Oct. 11--To serve passengers of outside countries better, the Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) has started making announcements in 11 different languages at Terminal 3 of the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA).

The languages are Hindi, English, Arabic, Japanese, Dutch, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Russian.

This was done after DIAL got a good response on making flight-related announcements in Arabic language for passengers of Gulf countries.

"Gulf is one of the most important and frequently travelled to regions for Delhi passengers. There are a large number of flights departing to Arabic speaking countries everyday," said I Prabhakara Rao, CEO, DIAL.

"In fact, after English and Hindi, Arabic is the most spoken language among passengers here at IGI Airport. So we decided to include the language to keep them updated about their flight status at the terminal," Rao added.

There are 13 airlines, including five Indian Carriers, which offer travel options to 15 Gulf destinations. Every week, more than 33,000 seats are offered by New Delhi airlines, of which 12,000 are of Indian carriers.

DIAL is now using an automated PA system, which translates English in 11 different languages. "Announcements, other than those Hindi and English, however, are done as per the request received from various airlines operating out of T3 for their respective flights," a DIAL spokesperson said.

"The software is from a Dutch company. The use of this technology has been made possible due to the advanced IT platforms installed by DIAL. IGIA is the only airport in India to boast of this feature and is one of the few airports worldwide," he added. The system is operated from the boarding gate, where the airline staffers have the option of selecting any of the 11 languages and the system makes the requisite announcement.