Belgaum Airport , also known as Belagavi Airport, is a domestic airport serving

Belgaum Belgaum (ISO 15919, ISO: ''Bēḷagāma''; also Belgaon and officially known as Belagavi) is a city in the Indian state of Karnataka located in its northern part along the Western Ghats. It is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous ...

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...

. The current integrated terminal building was inaugurated by then Minister of Civil Aviation

Ashok Gajapathi Raju Pusapati Ashok Gajapathi Raju (born 26 June 1951) is an Indian politician and the former Union Minister for Civil Aviation in the Narendra Modi Government. A scion of Royal family of Vizayanagram princely state, he is the younger son of the la ...

on 14 September 2017. Near the airport, there is an

Indian Air Force The Indian Air Force (IAF) is the air arm of the Indian Armed Forces. Its complement of personnel and aircraft assets ranks third amongst the air forces of the world. Its primary mission is to secure Indian airspace and to conduct aerial w ...

station, at which new recruits receive basic training.

History

Built in 1942 by the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

(RAF), Belgaum Airport is the third oldest airport in

. The RAF used the airport as a training site 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 ...

, providing support to the

South East Asia Command South East Asia Command (SEAC) was the body set up to be in overall charge of Allies of World War II, Allied operations in the South-East Asian theatre of World War II, South-East Asian Theatre during the World War II, Second World War. Histo ...

. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) took control of the airport in 1956, followed by the Ministry of Civil Aviation in 1962. During the 1990s, Belgaum Airport was served by East-West Airlines, Gujarat Airways,

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 mer ...

NEPC Airlines NEPC Airlines was a private airline that operated from 1993 to 1997. It was headquartered in Chennai, then known as Madras, and was promoted by the Chennai-based NEPC group, founded by Ravi Prakash Khemka. History The NEPC (Natural Energy Proces ...

and

Vayudoot Vayudoot ( hi, वायुदूत, Vāyudūt, messenger who rides on the wind) was a regional airline in India established on 20 January 1981 as a joint-venture between the two state-owned carriers, Indian Airlines and Air India. The airline ...

. All airlines ended flights to the airport by the end of the decade. Belgaum Airport saw the return of commercial flights in 2003, with

Air Deccan Air Deccan is an Indian regional airline currently operating from Ahmedabad, Gujarat. It flies to a total of four destinations using Beech 1900D aircraft, as of November 2019. As of October 2021, the airline has temporarily suspended operatio ...

providing service from

Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

. Air Deccan also flew to

Kolhapur Kolhapur () is a city on the banks of the Panchganga River in the southern part of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the administrative headquarter of the Kolhapur district. In, around 2 C.E. Kolapur's name was 'Kuntal'. Kolhapur is kn ...

and

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

for some time. After Air Deccan completed its merger with

Kingfisher Airlines Kingfisher Airlines Limited was an airline group based in India. It was established in 2003 and started its commercial operations in 2005. Through its parent company United Breweries Group, it had a 50% stake in low-cost carrier Kingfisher Red. ...

in 2008, Kingfisher decided to end flights to Belgaum in June 2009. Nevertheless, expansion plans for Belgaum Airport were launched in 2010, when 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) and the

Government of Karnataka The Government of Karnataka, abbreviated as, GoK, or simply Karnataka Government, is a democratically-elected state body with the governor as the ceremonial head to govern the Southwest Indian state of Karnataka. The governor who is appointed ...

signed a memorandum of understanding. Kingfisher returned in January 2011 with daily flights from Mumbai, but it exited the market in November 2011 amid its own financial difficulties.

SpiceJet SpiceJet is an Indian budget airline headquartered in Gurgaon, Haryana. It is the second largest airline in the country by number of domestic passengers carried, with a market share of 13.6% as of March 2019. The airline operates 630 daily fli ...

arrived at Belgaum in November 2012 with flights from Bangalore and later added direct flights to Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad after Belgaum airport was expanded in September 2017. Spicejet served the airport till May 2018.After Hubballi airport was nominated under UDAN scheme. Spicejet shifted all its operations to Hubballi which it operated from Belgaum Airport, Airport came into operation again after Alliance Air, a subsidiary of Air India began flight services to Bangalore from 11 July 2018. This was a thrice a week flight operated by ATR 72 type aircraft. Air India began service to Bangalore with its Airbus A319 aircraft from 10 August 2018 on remaining 4 days of the week thus connecting Belgaum with Bangalore all 7 days in the week. Also this was the first arrival of Airbus A319 in Belgaum. In 2013, the

Central Government A central government is the government that is a controlling power over a unitary state. Another distinct but sovereign political entity is a federal government, which may have distinct powers at various levels of government, authorized or dele ...

cleared the expansion project. Work began in February 2015 at a cost of Rs 1.20 billion and took over two and a half years. It involved extension of the runway, construction of a new isolation bay, taxiway, apron for three A-320 aircraft and a new 22.5-metre tall ATC tower. The expanded facilities were formally inaugurated on 14 September 2017 and AAI commissioned the new terminal and apron on 16 October 2017. In 2020, Union Minister of State for Railways

Suresh Angadi Suresh Channabasappa Angadi (1 June 195523 September 2020) was an Indian politician who served as the Union Minister of State for Railways of India from 30 May 2019 to 23 September 2020. He was Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha from 2004 to Septe ...

requested that the airport be named after Kittur Rani Chennamma.

Terminal and airfield

Airport Entrance and Ticketing Counter A new terminal building was inaugurated on 14 September 2017 as part of the airport expansion project. The terminal building is spread over 3,600 square metres and has a capacity to accommodate over 300 passengers. It has two baggage conveyor belts and six check-in counters. It has an

apron An apron is a garment that is worn over other clothing to cover the front of the body. The word comes from old French ''napron'' meaning a small piece of cloth, however over time "a napron" became "an apron", through a linguistics process cal ...

for parking of three Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 aircraft. The old apron has two parking stands designed for the

ATR 72 The ATR 72 is a twin-engine turboprop, short-haul regional airliner developed and produced in France and Italy by aircraft manufacturer ATR (french: Avions de transport régional or it, Aerei da Trasporto Regionale), a joint venture formed b ...

and similar aircraft. There are also two additional aprons, one on the north side of the runway that serves as an isolation bay and one on the south side. These aprons are each connected by single taxiways to runway 08/26, which measures . A extension of the runway has been completed & presently runway size is 2300×45 metres.

Airlines and destinations

Statistics

Air Force Station

Built by and originally under the control of the Royal Air Force, the Special Reserve Police of

took over the airbase in 1948. The air force station was a major base of air operations during Operation Vijay in 1961. Two years later, No. 1 Ground Training School at

Jalahalli Jalahalli is a suburb in northern part of Bengaluru is one of the greenest areas of Bengaluru. It is mainly divided into Jalahalli East and Jalahalli West. Gangamma Circle is the junction between the roads connecting Jalahalli East, Jalahall ...

was moved to the base and renamed ''Administrative Training Institute'' (ATI) in 1980. In 2001, the ATI was renamed ''Airmen Training School'' (ATS). The focus of the base turned to providing Joint Basic Phase Training (JBPT) through the Basic Training Institute. JBPT is designed to teach recruits military values and orient them towards a life in the military.

References

External links

Belagavi Airport
at

website. {{Indian Air Force Airports in Karnataka Transport in Belgaum Buildings and structures in Belagavi district 1942 establishments in British India Airports established in 1942