Maharaja Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya Airport (

IATA The International Air Transport Association (IATA ) is a trade association of the world's airlines founded in 1945. IATA has been described as a cartel since, in addition to setting technical standards for airlines, IATA also organized tariff ...

: IXA,

ICAO The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO, ) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that coordinates the principles and techniques of international air navigation, and fosters the planning and development of international a ...

: VEAT), which is used to known as Agartala Airport,is an

international airport An international airport is an airport with customs and border control facilities enabling passengers to travel between countries around the world. International airports are usually larger than domestic airports and they must feature longer ...

situated 12 kilometres (7 miles) northwest of

Agartala Agartala () is the capital city of the Indian state of Tripura, and is one of the largest cities in northeast India. The city is governed by the Agartala Municipal Corporation. The city is the seat of the Government of Tripura. It is located on ...

, the capital of

Tripura Tripura (, Bengali: ) is a state in Northeast India. The third-smallest state in the country, it covers ; and the seventh-least populous state with a population of 36.71 lakh ( 3.67 million). It is bordered by Assam and Mizoram to the east a ...

. It is administered by the

Airports Authority of India The Airports Authority of India, or AAI, is a public sector enterprise under the ownership of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India. It is responsible for creating, upgrading, maintaining, and managing civil aviation infrastruct ...

(AAI). It is the second busiest airport in

North-East India , native_name_lang = mni , settlement_type = , image_skyline = , image_alt = , image_caption = , motto = , image_map = Northeast india.png , ...

after Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi Airport in

Guwahati Guwahati (, ; formerly rendered Gauhati, ) is the biggest city of the Indian state of Assam and also the largest metropolis in northeastern India. Dispur, the capital of Assam, is in the circuit city region located within Guwahati and is the ...

and 29th busiest airport in India. It is the third international airport in North-East India, after Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi Airport and

Imphal Airport Imphal International Airport , formerly known as the Tulihal International Airport and currently officially renamed as the Bir Tikendrajit International Airport, is an international airport serving Imphal, the capital of Manipur, India, located ...

. The new current integrated terminal of the airport has 20 check-in counters, six parking bays, four

aerobridges A jet bridge (also termed jetway, jetwalk, airgate, gangway, aerobridge/airbridge, skybridge, finger, airtube, expedited suspended passenger entry system (E-SPES), or its official industry name passenger boarding bridge (PBB)) is an enclosed, m ...

, conveyor belts and passenger-friendly modern facilities and amenities like In-Line Baggage System (ILBS), Escalators, Lifts, etc. In addition to the new terminal building, a new parallel taxiway to the runway and two new hangars are being built.

History

The airport was designed and built in 1942 by the then Maharaja of Tripura, Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya Bahadur Debbarman. It had one primary runway, 05/23, which is now used as a taxiway to Runway 18/36. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the airport was used by the

4th Combat Cargo Group The 4th Combat Cargo Group was a World War II United States Army Air Forces combat organization that served in Tenth Air Force as part of the China Burma India Theater of World War II. Overview Combat Cargo Groups were to be self-contained group ...

(4th CCG) of the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

Tenth Air Force The Tenth Air Force (10 AF) is a unit of the U.S. Air Force, specifically a numbered air force of the Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC). 10 AF is headquartered at Naval Air Station Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base/Carswell Field (formerly Carswell AF ...

, flying

Curtiss C-46 Commando The Curtiss C-46 Commando is a twin-engine transport aircraft derived from the Curtiss CW-20 pressurised high-altitude airliner design. Early press reports used the name "Condor III" but the Commando name was in use by early 1942 in company pub ...

transport aircraft over

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

. The 4th CCG operated from the airport during December 1944 and January 1945, after which it moved to

Chittagong Chittagong ( /ˈtʃɪt əˌɡɒŋ/ ''chit-uh-gong''; ctg, চিটাং; bn, চিটাগং), officially Chattogram ( bn, চট্টগ্রাম), is the second-largest city in Bangladesh after Dhaka and third largest city in B ...

. The airport experienced international operations when Indian Airlines flew to Dhaka-Tejgaon Airport and

Jessore Jessore ( bn, যশোর, jôshor, ), officially Jashore, is a city of Jessore District situated in Khulna Division. It is situated in the south-western part of Bangladesh. It is the administrative centre (headquarter) of the eponymous district ...

in East Pakistan/

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

from Agartala.

Development and expansion

(AAI) decided to upgrade the airport to international standards, which will be the third international airport in North-East region after

Imphal Imphal ( Meitei pronunciation: /im.pʰal/; English pronunciation: ) is the capital city of the Indian state of Manipur. The metropolitan centre of the city contains the ruins of Kangla Palace (also known as Kangla Fort), the royal seat of the fo ...

. The AAI has undertaken ₹438 crore (US$61 million) project to upgrade the airport to provide world-class facilities. The State Government has already provided 72 acres (29 ha) land to AAI to build a new terminal building, runway and other necessary infrastructure. The upgrade is expected to be completed by 2025, out of which the new terminal is completed, and it was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 4 January 2022. After becoming operational, flights from Agartala to

and likely to

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

will be operated.

Airlines and destinations

Accidents and incidents

* 7 June 1970: A Fokker F27 of

Indian Airlines Indian Airlines was a division of Air India Limited. It was based in Delhi and focused primarily on domestic routes, along with several international services to neighbouring countries in Asia. It was a division of Air India Limited after m ...

flying with 34 passengers and 4 crew members overran the runway at Agartala after it touched down at a higher than normal speed 2,775 feet from the threshold; however, none of the passengers or crew members died. The airplane was later written off.

References

External links

Maharaja Bir Bikram Airport
at