Bagdogra Airport is a

customs 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 longe ...

located in the western part of

Siliguri Siliguri, ) is a major tier-II city in West Bengal. It forms "Twin Cities" with the neighboring district capital of Jalpaiguri. The city spans areas of the Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts in the Indian state of West Bengal. Known as the ' ...

, in

Bagdogra Bagdogra is a settlement in the Naxalbari CD block in the Siliguri subdivision of the Darjeeling district, in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is a part of the Greater Siliguri Metropolitan Area. The Bagdogra is well connected by air to six ...

in northern

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fou ...

, India. It is operated as a

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 AFS Bagdogra of the Indian Air Force. It is the gateway airport to the hill stations of

Darjeeling Darjeeling (, , ) is a town and municipality in the northernmost region of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located in the Eastern Himalayas, it has an average elevation of . To the west of Darjeeling lies the easternmost province of Nepal ...

, Gangtok,

Kurseong Kurseong is a town and a municipality in Darjeeling district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the headquarters of the Kurseong subdivision. Located at an altitude of , Kurseong is from Darjeeling and has a pleasant climate throughout ...

, Kalimpong,

Mirik Mirik is a small town and a Notified Area of Darjeeling district in the state of West Bengal, India. It is the headquarters of the Mirik subdivision. The name ''Mirik'' comes from the Lepcha words ''Mir-Yok'' meaning "place burnt by fire". H ...

and other parts of the North Bengal region. As a major transport hub in the region, the airport sees thousands of tourists annually. The

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

conferred limited international airport status to the airport in 2002 with limited international operations. Bagdogra Airport experiences humid sub-tropical climate (Köppen climate classification Cwa) - hot humid summers and cooler winter. Significant precipitation in all seasons but drier in the winter. Air traffic at Bagdogra crossed 1 million for the first time growing at 43.6% percent in 2014–15. In 2019–20, the airport served 3.2 million passengers which was an increase of 11.2% from the previous year, making it the 17th-busiest airport in India. It is one of the few airports in India with zero sales tax on aviation turbine fuel.

Air Force Station

The airbase is home to the IAF No. 20 Wing, as also to the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 (Mig-21) FL fighter aircraft of the No. 8 Squadron and a Helicopter Unit. Along with the airbase at

Hasimara Hasimara is a town in Alipurduar district of West Bengal state, India near the border with Bhutan. It is located at 26° 45' N latitude and 89° 21' E longitude at an altitude of 109 metres above sea level and has a population of about 40,000 (20 ...

Alipurduar district Alipurduar is a city and a municipality in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the headquarters of the Alipurduar district. Situated on the east bank of Kaljani River on the foothills of the Himalayas, the city is a gateway to Bhutan and ...

; it is responsible for combat air operations over a large area including North Bengal, Sikkim, and if needed,

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainou ...

. The base caters to all military air traffic for the Indian Army's XXXIII Corps based nearby in Sukna.

Expansion

The state government had handed over of land to the Ministry of Civil Aviation for developing infrastructure for night landing in 2010. AAI also expanded the

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 ...

at the same time, enabling the parking of 5 narrow body aircraft simultaneously. The IAF, which maintains the ATC and runway, gave permission for night landings by civilian aircraft allowing flights past 6 pm in 2013. The new terminal building, which will start its construction by December 2022, will be completed by June 2025 with 16 parking bays, 10 aerobridges and a taxi way. It will have a floor area of 1 lakh sq.m at a cost of Rs 1884 crore, and it will be capable of handling 12.5 million passengers per year. After the expansion of the airport, more international flights can land here, and will turn this customs airport into an international one. For its growing traffic over the years, in 2022, From 11 to 25 April, the airport was shut down for 14 days to refurbish its sole runway.

Statistics

Airlines and destinations

Accidents and incidents

* 23 May 2008: A

MiG-21 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 (russian: Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-21; NATO reporting name: Fishbed) is a supersonic jet fighter and interceptor aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. Its nickn ...

of the Indian Air Force had to perform a belly landing due to a technical snag and a jammed landing gear. The aircraft hard landed on the runway causing it to catch fire. The pilot ejected safely.The aircraft was written off subsequently. * 5 July 2013: AI879, an

A320 The Airbus A320 family is a series of narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus. The A320 was launched in March 1984, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air France. The first member of the famil ...

arriving from

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament Ho ...

swerved off the taxiway while taxiing towards the apron after landing. No injuries were reported. The passengers were immediately de-boarded. The aircraft sustained minor damage and took about 7 hours to bring the stuck aircraft to the taxiway. *11 July 2014: A mishap was avoided between

IndiGo Indigo is a deep color close to the color wheel blue (a primary color in the RGB color space), as well as to some variants of ultramarine, based on the ancient dye of the same name. The word "indigo" comes from the Latin word ''indicum'', m ...

flight 6E472 and

Air India Air India is the flag carrier airline of India, headquartered at New Delhi. It is owned by Talace Private Limited, a Special-Purpose Vehicle (SPV) of Tata Sons, after Air India Limited's former owner, the Government of India, completed the ...

flight AI879. Both aircraft received a Traffic Collision Avoidance System warning. Following the Resolution Advisory given by the TCAS the IndiGo flight immediately descended and the Air India flight turned right. Both aircraft landed safely without any injuries. * 15 February 2019: An Air Asia India

scheduled for a flight from Bagdogra Airport to Kempegowda International Airport damaged its left wing sharklets while backtracking the runway. The two pilots were later suspended for 6 months by the DGCA in view of violating laid down procedures. * 16 December 2019: An

A320neo The Airbus A320neo family is a development of the A320 family of narrow-body airliners produced by Airbus. The A320neo family (''neo'' for "new engine option") is based on the previous A319, A320 and A321 ( enhanced variant), which was then ren ...

bound for

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

performed an emergency landing in view of engine related issues. The aircraft was using Pratt & Whitney engines. Out of the two engines, one engine was not modified which caused the issue.

References

External links

Bagdogra Airport
at Airports Authority of India website. {{Indian Air Force Buildings and structures in Darjeeling district Transport in Jalpaiguri district Airports in West Bengal Transport in Siliguri Airports with year of establishment missing