Discuss the challenges of coordinating civil and military aviation infrastructure during high-security international summits hosted in India, with reference to the BRICS Summit 2026.

Hosting the 18th BRICS Summit at New Delhi on 12–13 September 2026, India had to move roughly 35 special aircraft carrying heads of state and government through a single metropolitan airspace [1][2]. Such events expose the friction between diplomatic protocol, military airspace control and uninterrupted commercial aviation.

Capacity and parking constraints

• IGI Airport's stands are sized for scheduled traffic, forcing dispersal of VVIP aircraft to the IAF's Palam technical area and auxiliary fields such as Noida International, Safdarjung and Hindon [2].
• An additional 40–50 summit-linked movements had to be absorbed alongside normal slots [2].

Civil–military interface

• The Palam technical area is an Air Force facility sharing runways with IGI; simultaneous ceremonial, military and commercial use demands second-by-second ATC sequencing [2].
• Differing civil and military procedures, clearances and communication protocols complicate a unified timeline.

Regulatory and airspace management

• The DGCA curbed non-scheduled operations, microlights, UAVs and flying-training sorties around Delhi during summit days — a regulatory, not merely policing, act [3].
• Restrictions must be calibrated: blanket shutdowns, as partly seen in 2023, impose passenger and revenue costs.

Security and multi-agency coordination

• CISF, which secures around 70 airports nationally, must physically segregate VVIP carcades from ordinary passenger flow without degrading terminal throughput [4].
• Convergence of CISF, IAF, DGCA, Delhi Police and airport operators risks overlapping jurisdictions absent a single command structure.

Diplomatic protocol

• As BRICS Chair, India owed equal-status ceremonial handling to every visiting leader, leaving little scheduling flexibility [5].

Encouragingly, the 2026 operation built on the G20 Summit (2023) template, keeping commercial flights largely running rather than resorting to mass cancellations [6] — evidence of institutional learning. Codifying these arrangements into a standing mega-event SOP, expanding dedicated VVIP handling capacity, and investing in counter-drone and slot-management technology would let India meet its rising multilateral hosting responsibilities without trading away passenger convenience.