Chennai Airport Builders Get a March 2027 Deadline

Airports Authority of India Chairman Vipin Kumar inspected Chennai Airport this week and told officials to finish the delayed second-phase expansion before March 2027. Deccan Chronicle reported that only about 45 percent of that Phase II work is complete, on a 1,207 crore rupee (12.07 billion rupee) contract that was supposed to be finished by March 2026.

If you are flying into Chennai in 2026, plan on the terminals already open, not a new Terminal 3. Arrival halls, check-in banks, and curb pickup will keep carrying a city that has already crossed 30 million annual passengers. For a realistic city day after that landing, start with Deep Arrival’s Chennai day guide rather than assuming a roomier airport is about to appear.

Phase II Is Only 45 Percent Complete

DT Next said a senior AAI team led by Kumar came from Delhi and found the second phase still far behind the original calendar. That phase covers 86,135 square meters and was first expected to be finished by the end of 2025, then opened to passengers by March 2026. Local reporting this week puts construction at roughly 45 percent.

News Today placed the inspection against rising traffic. Chennai Airport handled about 22 million passengers in 2015 and crossed 30 million in 2025. The Centre approved a two-phase expansion in 2017 at a total 2,467 crore rupees. Phase I, on about 149,000 square meters, cost about 1,260 crore rupees.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated that integrated terminal in April 2023. A July 2026 Lok Sabha reply, reported by the Financial Express, said it has been operational since July 8, 2023, and lifted capacity from 23 million to 30 million passengers a year.

Three older international terminal buildings were then demolished to make room for Phase II. That is why the unfinished second phase matters on the ground: the airport is already using the new Phase I hall while the rest of the integrated terminal is still a construction site beside live operations.

What the New Terminal Is Built to Handle

Deccan Chronicle listed the passenger-facing kit planned for the new hall: eight entrances, 60 check-in counters, eight aerobridges, 10 X-ray scanners, and nine remote boarding gates. After Phase II opens, domestic and international passengers are supposed to enter through any gate, which the paper said should cut baggage-check queues. Arrivals are also slated for newer conveyor belts and automatic scanners.

The Financial Express, citing Minister of State for Civil Aviation Murlidhar Mohol, described Phase II as Terminal 3 and said it would raise the airport to 35 million passengers a year. DT Next used the same 35 million figure and said a fifth terminal would be taken up only after this expansion is finished. Until then, Chennai remains a four-terminal plan on paper and a tighter airport in practice.

Working next to live flights is part of the delay. DT Next reported that AAI officials stressed how expansion inside an operating international airport requires extra safety steps so construction does not stop aircraft or passengers. The current halls stay open, and the new hall cannot be rushed the way an empty plot can.

Deadlines Have Already Moved Past 2026

The original building-complete date was March 2026. In July, Mohol told Parliament the modernisation deadline had been reset to December 2026, after Covid-19, cyclones, and heavy rain, and that 1,762.08 crore rupees had been spent through June 2026. This week’s local reporting shows that official calendar has already been overtaken. Deccan Chronicle said Kumar’s team now wants Phase II finished before March 2027. DT Next said AAI is trying to bring the new hall into operation at the beginning of 2027.

News Today reported that AAI had already set a revised target of finishing construction by the end of 2026 and opening Terminal 3 by March 2027. The same account, citing unnamed officials, warned that civil works still have to be followed by fit-out, equipment, and trial operations.

If the present pace holds, those sources said the hall might not open until late 2027. That late-2027 date is not an AAI announcement. It is a caution from people the paper did not name, and it should be treated as a risk, not a booking fact.

Deccan Chronicle and News Today both said one or two contractors left after they could not keep working at original tender rates once construction-material prices rose. New agencies have been brought in. That explains slippage. It does not tell a passenger when the first extra check-in row will actually open.

Chennai Still Has No Second Airport Backup

The inspection landed after Tamil Nadu dropped the Parandur greenfield airport plan. Deccan Chronicle noted that a replacement site has not been selected. Chennai’s current airport therefore has to absorb growth that planners once hoped to split. That is why a 45 percent Phase II score is a traveler problem, not only a construction story: there is no second runway-and-terminal campus waiting in the suburbs.

Mohol’s July reply still called Chennai India’s fifth-busiest airport by passenger traffic since fiscal 2022-23, with no pending airline slot requests at AAI. Those figures describe demand, not comfort. A fifth-busiest airport at 30 million passengers, with the next hall maybe a year or more away, is the planning picture for anyone connecting through Chennai or building a same-day city visit around a long layover.

If you do have hours on the ground, the useful move is to leave the terminal rather than wait for a future hall. The Government Museum Chennai visitor guide is a dated, indoor option that does not depend on Terminal 3. Keep extra time for the return through security. The current airport is not closed, and it is not about to feel new.