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  • 21 Aug, 2019

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Ahmedabad Airport
Ahmedabad Airport, officially Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport (IATA: AMD, ICAO: VAAH), is an international airport serving the twin cities of Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar in Gujarat, India. It is named after Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the first Deputy Prime Minister of India. The airport is the busiest and largest airport in the state of Gujarat, and is the seventh busiest airport in India.

In fiscal year 2023-24, it handled over 11 million passengers, making it the seventh-busiest airport in terms of passenger traffic in India. The airport serves as a focus city for Air India and an operating base for IndiGo. In 2015, the government started the procedure for the privatisation of the airport. The new Dholera International Airport is being developed due to expansion constraints at the current airport.

Vaikundaraja.s
Ahmedabad Airport Terminal 1

History

The statue of Sardar Patel installed within the airport in 2011.

The airport was set up in 1937, while international operations began on 26 January 1991. It was categorised as an International airport on 23 May 2000. In March 2004, Air India commenced service to London's Heathrow Airport on a Boeing 747. The flight catered to the large Gujarati community in the United Kingdom. The carrier ended it in October 2008. The following June, Air India began a route to Frankfurt using 747s. The link lasted until November 2010.

The new Terminal 2 was inaugurated for handling international passengers in 2010. A 18-foot-tall (5.5 m) statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was also inaugurated at the airport. In August 2016, Air India reinstated direct service to London-Heathrow aboard a Boeing 787. Of the four weekly flights, three continued on to Newark. In March 2017 a 700 kWp rooftop solar plant was commissioned at the airport. Air India stopped operating the London–Newark service in November 2018.

In November 2018, the Central Government cleared a proposal by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) for leasing out six of its airports, including Ahmedabad. The following month, AAI commenced an international competitive bidding process to award Operations, Management and Development (OMD) contracts for the six airports. Seven companies participated in the bidding process for Ahmedabad airport. These included Adani Enterprises Limited, Sydney, Australia-based AMP Capital Investors (UK) Limited, Autostrade, GMR Airports Limited, I Investments Ltd, PNC Infrastructure Ltd and Sanna Enterprises.

The bidding process that was won by the Adani Group. Subsequent to the selection of Adani Enterprises Limited (AEL) as the “Selected Bidder”, AEL promoted and incorporated the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) – Ahmedabad International Airport Limited (AIAL), as the concessionaire under the Companies Act, 2013 in accordance with the terms of the RFP. AIAL signed the Concession Agreement with AAI for exclusive right to operate, manage and develop Ahmedabad Airport on 14 February 2020.

Structure

The airport currently consists of four terminals: domestic, international, an additional terminal for secondary traffic and a cargo terminal as well. The airport has 45 parking bays and both the international and domestic terminals have four aero-bridges each. The new terminal has been modelled based on Singapore Changi Airport.

The new terminal has a half-kilometre-long moving walkway, which connects the two terminals. Airports Authority of India (AAI) will construct a new technical block which will enhance the flight handling capacity and provide better control of flights.

Runway

The airport has a single runway that is 3,505 metres (11,499 ft) long.

Air traffic control tower

As part of the airport modernisation process, the AAI announced that it would construct a new air traffic control (ATC) building that would include a new airport tower 65 metres (213 ft) in height.

Terminals

Terminal 1

Terminal 1 is used for domestic flights and has 32 check-in counters and has an area of 45,000 m (480,000 sq ft).

In December 2018, a new Plaza Premium lounge was opened at Terminal 1 (near Gate 4 on first floor), which caters for Priority Pass and other select bank cards as well as some business class passengers based on airline flown.

Terminal 2

Interior view of Terminal 2
Exterior view of Terminal 2

Terminal 2 was inaugurated on 5 July 2010 and opened for international flights on 15 September 2010. The terminal won the award for the best Steel Structure at the 2009 edition of the National Structural Steel Design and Construction Awards. The terminal has four aerobridges and 32 check-in counters. With the total floor area of approximately 41,000 sq. meters, this terminal will be able to accommodate around 1,600 passengers at any given time. In November 2018, a new Plaza Premium lounge was opened at the international departures area of Terminal 2, which caters for business class and first class passengers as well as passengers holding Priority Pass and other bank cards. The new 51,975-square-metre (559,450 sq ft) apron area can cater for the parking of nine A-321 and four ATR-72 type of aircraft.

Cargo Terminal

The airport handled 51,637 tonnes of cargo, inclusive of gold and silver in 2013–14. Sixty per cent of the cargo comes from domestic sources. In 2009, 3,685 square metres (39,670 sq ft) of land was leased for a period of seven years out by the AAI to Gujarat Agro Industries Corporation to set up a center for perishable cargo. However, due to a government policy that prevented third-party operations at airports run by the AAI, the CPC was not in use until July 2014, when the minister of state for civil aviation announced that the government had issued a No Objection Certificate for commencement of operations. In 2014, it was announced that the airport would be getting a dedicated cargo terminal which is expected to come up at Terminal 3.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

AirlinesDestinations
AirAsia Kuala Lumpur–International
Air Arabia Abu Dhabi, Sharjah
Air India Bengaluru, Delhi, Goa–Dabolim, London–Gatwick, Mumbai
Akasa Air Abu Dhabi (begins 1 March 2025), Bengaluru, Delhi, Goa–Mopa, Gwalior, Jeddah, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, Siliguri
Alliance Air Delhi, Indore, Keshod, Udaipur
Emirates Dubai–International
Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi
Flydubai Dubai–International
IndiGo Abu Dhabi, Amritsar, Ayodhya, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Dehradun, Delhi, Diu, Dubai–International, Goa–Dabolim, Goa–Mopa, Guwahati Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Jaisalmer, Jammu, Jeddah, Jodhpur, Kochi, Kolkata, Kuwait City, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, Nashik, Patna, Pune, Raipur, Ranchi, Srinagar, Thiruvananthapuram, Varanasi
Iraqi Airways Najaf
Jazeera Airways Kuwait City
Kuwait Airways Kuwait City
Malaysia Airlines Kuala Lumpur–International
Qatar Airways Doha
Singapore Airlines Singapore
SpiceJet Ayodhya, Chennai, Delhi, Dubai–International, Goa–Mopa, Jaipur, Jeddah, Kolkata, Patna, Pune, Siliguri
Seasonal: Jaisalmer, Prayagraj (begins 12 January 2025)
Star Air Belgaum, Bhuj, Kolhapur, Nagpur, Nanded
Thai AirAsia Bangkok–Don Mueang
Thai Airways International Bangkok–Suvarnabhumi
Thai Lion Air Bangkok–Don Mueang
VietJet Air Da Nang, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City

Cargo

AirlinesDestinationsRefs.
Blue Dart Aviation Delhi, Mumbai
Emirates SkyCargo Dubai–Al Maktoum
Ethiopian Airlines Cargo Addis Ababa
Qatar Airways Cargo Doha
Turkish Cargo Istanbul

Statistics

Annual passenger traffic at AMD airport. See Wikidata query.

Future

Due to growing demands and rise in passenger traffic, the airport will get a third passenger terminal just beside Terminal 1, by shifting the present cargo terminal to beside Terminal 2, which will increase the airport's capacity. After that, the airport could not be further expanded due to limited space for the future. To solve this problem, a new airport at Dholera, which is being developed into a new smart city, located 107 km (66 mi) south-west from the present airport, is under construction, which will be the biggest airport in Gujarat with two parallel runways. Being developed in three phases, the first phase of the airport will be completed by December 2025.

Awards

The airport was awarded as the Most Improved Airport in the Asia-Pacific Region by the Airports Council International in 2017. In 2019, it received three awards for the Best Airport for Customer Service, Best Airport for Environment and Ambience and Best Airport for Infrastructure and Facilitation from the Airport Service Quality (ASQ) Survey for 2019 conducted by Airports Council International.

Accidents and incidents

  • Indian Airlines Flight 113 operating from Mumbai to Ahmedabad crashed on its final approach to the airport on 19 October 1988, killing 130 people including all 6 crew members. The flight was cleared for a visual approach into a foggy airport, when it struck trees and a high-tension pylon at a distance of 5 km from Runway 23, before crashing into a field and bursting into flames.
  • Jet Airways Flight 2510, coming in from Indore collapsed on the runway while landing at the airport on 22 July 2010. There were 57 passengers and four crew members on board the ATR flight. Some passengers received minor injuries as the nose wheel reportedly collapsed due to a tyre burst.
  • In January 2018, a stray cow on the runway had caused chaos at airport leading to two planes aborting their landings. The cow crept past security at a cargo gate at the airport resulting in a cargo plane being diverted to Mumbai and delaying five domestic flights and several departures. It took over 90 minutes for the security personnel to clear the runway from the cow.

See also

References

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