Noida International Airport today successfully conducted its first flight validation test, paving the way for authorities to commence operations next year.
An IndiGo aircraft took off from Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport with only crew members and landed on the runway after necessary security checks.
The airport is located in Jewar in Gautam Buddha Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh and is expected to become operational by April next year. It will be the second major airport in the National Capital Region (NCR) after the IGI airport.
“This was a prestigious project. Today, the landing of the aircraft was a great achievement,” Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu said.
Christoph Schnellmann, CEO of Noida International Airport, thanked the Ministry of Civil Aviation, the Airports Authority of India, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation and the Prime Minister Yogi Adityanath-led government of Uttar Pradesh.
“We completed the work together in record time,” he says.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of Jewar Airport in November 2021.
The airport is being developed by Yamuna International Airport Private Limited, a subsidiary of Swiss firm Zurich Airport International AG, in collaboration with Noida International Airport Limited, the implementing agency on behalf of the Government of Uttar Pradesh.
The total area of the project is 1,334 hectares and in the first phase, 1.2 crore passengers are expected to use the airport annually. This number is expected to increase to 3 crore by the end of this decade and to 7 crore a few years after that.
Initially, one runway will be operational and when it opens, the terminal will have ten aero bridges and three bus gates. There will eventually be two operational runways and although the airport will initially have 28 aircraft spaces in the apron area, this will expand to 200 as the number of flights and passengers increases.
The airport is connected to Greater Noida, Noida and Delhi via the signal-free Yamuna Expressway.
It is planned as a gateway to tourist destinations in northern India, including the Taj Mahal, and for Hindu pilgrimages such as the Chardham Yatra, Kumbh Mela, Mathura and Vrindavan, as well as the Buddhist circuit of Sravasti, Kapilavastu and Kushinagar.
