NEW DELHI: The ongoing churn in the aviation sector has impacted Hindon Airport in Ghaziabad badly. The average number of footfalls as well as flights per day at this airport, located just 35 kms from Delhi, have reduced to a mere one-fourth of that in the past. Ironically, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has improved the infrastructure considerably in the past few months.
According to reliable sources, the airport, located just 30 km from Delhi, had recorded an average of 4,000 to 4,500 flyers on a daily basis earlier. “As of now, Hindon airport registers between 1,000 and 1,200 flyers per day. There have been individual days when the airport even touched nearly 6,000 flyers,” a source said.
From 44 Air Traffic Movements (arrivals and departures) per day, it has now dipped to just 12 ATMs per day, he added.
The airfield, owned by the Indian Air Force, does not have operations after sunset and this imposes severe restrictions on airlines.
Star Air, which began operations from here to Nanded and Adampur under UDAN (Regional Connectivity Scheme) continues to do so. “Its operations to Mundra airport in Gujarat, which were quite successful, have been stopped.”
Air India Express launched operations on March 1, 2025, with ten flights, and ended operations on March 30, 2026.
IndiGo, which commenced operations here from July 20, 2025, which also used to operate ten flights daily, has recently axed the Chennai route. It now connects Navi Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Varanasi alone. Its winter schedule lists the same from here on a daily basis.
Apart from the night restriction, the presence of just two parking bays for planes is a long standing bottleneck here.
Airport Director Chilaka Mahesh told this reporter, “The Airports Authority of India has effected major upgrades here. The number of counters here has been increased, the terminal building has been expanded by stretching it by an additional 700 square metres to relieve congestion inside, the seating capacity has been increased to 530 from the 300 seats earlier. The roads leading to the airport too have been improved.”
The proposed increase in the parking bays from two to six, which the airport has been working on for a long time, will make a big difference to Hindon, another source said.
An airline source said, “The inability to park our planes at the airport, the narrow space inside the terminal in the past, due to which all the passengers of a flight could not be seated inside and the general congestion inside were major constraints for us.”
