Noida International Airport began commercial operations on June 15, nearly two years later than originally planned, with IndiGo and Akasa Air as the launch carriers and Air India Group staying away for now.
Conceived as a second major gateway for the National Capital Region and western Uttar Pradesh, the airport at Jewar was expected to reshape air travel patterns around Delhi while unlocking economic development along the Yamuna Expressway corridor. The airport’s commercial debut is arriving with considerably less fanfare than many had expected.
The first phase of the airport has been designed with a capacity of 12mn passengers a year and is intended to function alongside Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport as part of a dual-airport system for the National Capital Region, with significantly larger passenger capacities and multiple runways planned for future phases.
For IndiGo, Noida provides an opportunity to strengthen its already dominant presence in the National Capital Region while tapping growing demand from western Uttar Pradesh. For Akasa, the airport offers a chance to establish an early foothold at a new aviation node without competing directly for slots at Delhi airport. Both airlines signed early agreements with the airport operator and remained committed despite repeated postponements.
Noida International Airport successfully conducted a full-scale aircraft turnaround trial on June 9 as part of its Operational Readiness, Activation and Transition programme, in collaboration with IndiGo and key airport partners. The trial simulated a complete aircraft turnaround on the airside, testing coordination of systems, processes and stakeholders, including Visual Docking Guidance Systems, passenger boarding bridges, ground power, baggage handling and cargo processes.
In-flight catering and other ground handling activities were also tested, with refuelling scenarios evaluated as part of the operational preparedness framework, alongside revalidation of the Instrument Landing System and Required Navigation Performance approach procedures.
IndiGo will be the largest carrier operating from the airport, though its operations there will still be smaller than at Navi Mumbai International Airport. The airline has designed a network built around one-stop options routed through Noida, including Bengaluru-Noida-Jammu, Navi Mumbai-Noida-Srinagar and Hyderabad-Noida-Amritsar services using Airbus aircraft.
ATR operations begin on July 1, connecting Noida with Jodhpur, Dharamshala, Bhopal, Dehradun, Bareilly, Kishangarh, Lucknow, Jaipur, Pantnagar and Chandigarh. Some of these routes will face pressure from road transport alternatives unless a stronger hub-and-spoke model develops, which both the airline and airport see as a future priority.