NEW DELHI: Around 170 farmers, including 20 women, from the Jewar region who gave up their land for the Noida International Airport project will board the maiden commercial flight from the airport to Lucknow on Monday morning. The IndiGo flight, scheduled to depart around 8 am, will be flagged off by Union Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu.
Jewar MLA Dhirendra Singh will accompany the farmers on the inaugural journey. The group is also expected to meet Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in Lucknow. Singh described the occasion as a proud moment for the region and said the journey reflected how the benefits of development were reaching ordinary citizens. He added that the farmers who once cultivated the land would now undertake their first air journey from the airport built on it.
PM Narendra Modi formally inaugurated the airport on March 28 this year, while the Directorate General of Civil Aviation granted clearance on March 6. The airport launch, however, was delayed from its original September 2024 schedule because of land acquisition issues, construction delays and pending regulatory clearances.
Officials said domestic services are being launched first, while international operations are expected to begin once operations stabilise. An airport official said the facility is expected to handle around 50 to 60 lakh passengers in its first year.
The airport currently has one runway and one passenger terminal with an annual handling capacity of 1.2 crore passengers. The project is being developed under a public-private partnership model by Yamuna International Airport Private Limited, a subsidiary of Zurich Airport International AG.