Kargil Airport is a military airfield in Kargil district away from Kargil and from

Leh Leh () ( lbj, ) is the joint capital and largest city of Ladakh, a union territory of India. Leh, located in the Leh district, was also the historical capital of the Kingdom of Ladakh, the seat of which was in the Leh Palace, the former res ...

. It is one of two airports in the union territory of

Ladakh Ladakh () is a region administered by India as a union territory which constitutes a part of the larger Kashmir region and has been the subject of dispute between India, Pakistan, and China since 1947. (subscription required) Quote: "Jammu ...

. The airport will be expanded for operation of commercial jets by the end of 2019. (Dzongkha and Ladakhi)

History

left, The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi being received by local leader, on his arrival at Kargil Airport, in Jammu & Kashmir on August 12, 2014 The airport was built by the State Government of Jammu and Kashmir in 1996 for civilian operations. and was leased to the Airports Authority of India (AAI). Kargil rose to prominence in the late 1990s as the site of an undeclared war between India and Pakistan. AAI transferred the operational control and maintenance to Indian Air Force (IAF) because the airport was vulnerable to shelling by Pakistani forces. The

civil enclave A joint-use airport is an aerodrome that is used for both military aviation and civil aviation. They typically contain facilities of both a civil airport and a military air base. By country United States The United States has several joint-use ...

at the airfield is managed by the state government. The terminal building has the capacity to handle 100 peak hour passengers at a time. It was built by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) at a cost of 350 million Rupees, initially for civilian use but was transferred to the Indian Air Force (IAF) in 2003 after it was damaged in the

Kargil War The Kargil War, also known as the Kargil conflict, was fought between India and Pakistan from May to July 1999 in the Kargil district of Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere along the Line of Control (LoC). In India, the conflict is also referr ...

in 1999. The Air Force operates its

An-32 The Antonov An-32 ( NATO reporting name: Cline) is a turboprop twin-engined military transport aircraft. Design and development The An-32 is essentially a re-engined An-26. It is designed to withstand adverse weather conditions better than the ...

aircraft from for an air courier service that transports civilians from Kargil to Srinagar and

Jammu Jammu is the winter capital of the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. It is the headquarters and the largest city in Jammu district of the union territory. Lying on the banks of the river Tawi, the city of Jammu, with an area of ...

during the harsh winter season. The airport is a much debated issue for local politicians as well as the public who pursue the point that the airport should be opened to commercial civilian services.

Air Mantra Air Mantra was a regional airline headquartered in New Delhi, India, that operated domestic flights between July 2012 and April 2013. History Air Mantra was founded in 2011 by Indian conglomerate Religare Group (which had operated an air cha ...

became the first commercial company to land a civilian aircraft at the airport when it landed a 17-seater aircraft with dignitaries, including then Chief Minister of the state

Omar Abdullah Omar Abdullah (; born 10 March 1970) is an Indian politician and former Chief Minister of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. He became the 11th and the youngest Chief Minister of the State of Jammu and Kashmir, after forming a governme ...

, on board in January, 2012. However, the service could not be sustained. The Jammu and Kashmir government sanctioned ₹ billion to upgrade the airport to handle commercial flights. A pre-feasibility study was conducted by the AAI in June 2019. The report recommended extending the existing runway by another in order to make it suitable for commercial jets.

References

Airports in Ladakh Transport in Kargil Airports established in 1996 1996 establishments in Jammu and Kashmir {{India-airport-stub