There are 487 airports, airstrips, flying schools and military bases in India. Out of these, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) manages about 137 Airports. These include some 35 International Airports, 10 Customs Airports, 81 Domestic Airports and 23 civil enclaves at Defense Airfields.
AAI provides air navigation services over 2.8 million square nautical miles and controls the movement of about 1300 thousand aircraft, besides handling 160 million domestic & international passengers and 909 thousand MT cargo.
Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) constructed in 5495 acres is the largest International airport and the busiest airport in terms of passenger traffic and cargo movement followed by the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport.
The IGI Airport is among the 16 busiest airports in the world and the 7th busiest in Asia in terms of passenger traffic. The Airports Authority of India is planning to increase the capacity of the airport to 100 million passengers by 2030.
The first international flight from Mumbai to London took off from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Airport on June 8, 1948
The Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Hyderabad (5945 acres) with 57 parking bays 47 remote parking bays, 10 aerobridges and a capacity to cater to 12 million passengers per year is among the largest airports in India in terms of the area followed by Indira Gandhi International Airport which has the second-largest area of 5,106 acres.
The Rajiv Gandhi International Airport features in the list of top 10 airports in the world and overtook Chennai to become the fourth busiest airport in India in terms of passenger traffic in FY-2021. It handled 8.04 million passengers between April 2020 and March 2021
Cochin International Airport, Kerala was the first international airport in India to be developed under PPP- Public-Private Partnership Model.
Trichy Airport is the smallest airport in India.
Juhu Aerodrome, Mumbai was the first and oldest Airport in India founded in 1928
Calicut International Airport, Kerala is the Second-busiest airport in Kerala and one of few airports in the country with a tabletop runway, which requires a very precise approach by the pilot.
Madurai airport ranks among the cleanest airports in India.
Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of operational airports at Agra, Lucknow, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Prayagraj, Kanpur, Hindon (Ghaziabad), Bareilly, Aligarh, Azamgarh, Moradabad, Shravasti, Chitrakoot and Kushinagar. No state has more than ten operational airports!
In addition to the above, Uttar Pradesh has 13 airports and seven airstrips are under different stages of development.
The Kushinagar International Airport formally inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 20 was the third functional International Airport in Uttar Pradesh and the 29th International Airport of India.
The Ayodhya International Airport proposed to be renamed Maryada Purushottam Shriram International Airport is expected to be functional soon. The Airport Authority of India has acquired about 370 acres of land, much higher than the 290 acres needed for the first phase and the groundbreaking ceremony of the Airport is likely to be held in January 2022.
At this rate, once the Noida International Airport Ltd (NIAL) at Jewar becomes operational by 2024, Uttar Pradesh will become the only Indian state to have five – the maximum number of international airports.
As of date- Kerala has four international airports at Kannur, Cochin, Calicut & Trivandrum – the largest number of international airports in India. Kottayam international airport is going to be the 5th International airport with a land area of 2263 acres.
Maharashtra has the maximum number of airports in India followed by UP, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Karnataka and West Bengal
Maharashtra has two international airports including Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport – Mumbai, and Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport Nagpur while Navi Mumbai International Airport is under construction. Mumbai handles over 900 airline flights per day and created a new world record of 969 take-offs and landings in 24 hours in 2017. Technically Mumbai has two runways but since they crisscross each other only one runway can be used at a time. The 12,008 feet long main runway 27 at Mumbai airport has a declared capacity to handle 46 take-offs and departures in an hour, yet there are times when it has handled 10 takeoffs or landings in 10 minutes.
On the other hand, Tamil Nadu has 4 International Airport at Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai and Tiruchirapalli.
One of the 47 busiest airports in Asia Chennai International Airport handles more than 400 flights per day and offers metro connectivity directly from the airport to various parts of the city.
Delhi, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Nagaland and Uttaranchal follow close behind with about two airports each.
