Kushinagar International Airport is an international airport serving

Kushinagar Kushinagar ( Hindustani: or ; Pali: ; Sanskrit: ) is a town in the Kushinagar district in Uttar Pradesh, India. It is an important and popular Buddhist pilgrimage site, where Buddhists believe Gautama Buddha attained ''parinirvana''. Etym ...

Uttar Pradesh, India Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

. In August 2021, the airport was licensed to operate as a customs notified airport, facilitating the movement of international passengers and

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

pilgrims.

History

The central government approved a

Viability Gap Funding Viability is the ability of a thing (a living organism, an artificial system, an idea, etc.) to maintain itself or recover its potentialities. Viability or viable may refer to: Biology, medicine or ecology * Viability selection, the selection o ...

(VGF) of 20% for the construction of Kushinagar Airport in 2013. The airport was to be built through a joint venture between the State Government and the Airports Authority of India (AAI). The project was initially intended to be developed on the public-private partnership model at an estimated cost of ₹ 354

crores A crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes ten million (10,000,000 or 107 in scientific notation) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. It is written as 1,00,00,000 with the local 2,2,3 style of digit group separators (one lakh is eq ...

. The State Government selected

IL&FS Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Limited (IL&FS) is an Indian state-funded infrastructure development and finance company. It was created by public sector banks and insurance companies. It operates through more than 250 subsidiaries i ...

Infrastructure Development Company Limited as project consultants. The design was inspired by inverted canopies called "Ulta Chaata". The Government had received 15 technical bids in 2013 from infrastructure companies for the development of the airport. In January 2014, the state cabinet cleared the project and approved the financial bid document. Despite several attempts to reduce the cost and the size of the project, the government could not convince private payers about its viability. In May 2015, the state government decided to take the support of Airport Authority of India to move ahead with the project. On 24 June 2020,

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament fro ...

recognized the Kushinagar Airport as an international airport, in part to attract Buddhist pilgrims. In February 2021, the airport received all necessary clearances from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to be recognized as the international airport, becoming the third international airport in Uttar Pradesh after

Lucknow Lucknow (, ) is the capital and the largest city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is also the second largest urban agglomeration in Uttar Pradesh. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and division ...

and

Varanasi Varanasi (; ; also Banaras or Benares (; ), and Kashi.) is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world. * * * * The city has a syncretic t ...

. On 20 October 2021, PM Modi officially inaugurated the airport during

Abhidhamma Day Abhidhamma Day ( my, အဘိဓမ္မာနေ့) is a Theravada Buddhist tradition celebrated primarily in Myanmar.Religious Celebrations: An Encyclopedia of Holidays, Festivals, Solemn Observances, and Spiritual Commemorations' J. Gordon Mel ...

celebrations at

, stating that it would boost the aviation sector and help increase international tourism from Buddhist pilgrims around the world. On that day, Sri Lanka's Minister for Youth and Sports

Namal Rajapaksa Lakshman Namal Rajapaksa ( si, ලක්ශ්මන් නාමල් රාජපක්ෂ; born 10 April 1986; known as Namal Rajapaksa) is a Sri Lankan politician. He is the eldest of son of Sri Lankan former President and Prime Minister M ...

and more than a hundred members of the Buddhist clergy landed at the inauguration of the airport as the first international flight landing. On 26 November 2021, the first passenger flight of

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 fl ...

landed at the airport from Delhi with 74 passengers, becoming the first scheduled flight to land at Kushinagar International Airport.

Location

Kushinagar Airport is located east of

Gorakhpur Airport Gorakhpur Airport is an airport located in Gorakhpur, in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. The Airports Authority of India operates it as a civil enclave at the Gorakhpur Air Force Station of the Indian Air Force. From the city the airport ...

, east of

Gorakhpur Gorakhpur is a city in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, along the banks of the Rapti river in the Purvanchal region. It is situated 272 kilometers east of the state capital Lucknow. It is the administrative headquarters of Gorakhpur dis ...

, north of Deoria, PADRAUNA south west of

Bettiah Bettiah is a city and administrative headquarters of West Champaran district ( Tirhut Division) - ( Tirhut), near Indo-Nepal border, north-west of Patna, in Bihar state of India. History In 1244 A.D., Gangeshwar Dev, a Bhumihar Brahmin ...

and west of

Gopalganj Gopalganj may refer to: Bangladesh *Gopalganj District, Bangladesh, a district of Dhaka Division ** Gopalganj, Bangladesh, a town and headquarter of Gopalganj district ** Gopalganj Sadar Upazila, an upazila of Gopalganj District ** Gopalganj-1, a ...

Characteristics

The airport has a single runway which is long and wide with number 11/29. The airport apron can accommodate 5 Boeing 737-900s at a time.

Airlines and destinations

As of November 2022,

is the only airline operating from Kushinagar Airport, providing

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders ...

flights six times a week.

Jyotiraditya Scindia Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia (born 1 January 1971) is an Indian politician who serves as the Minister of Civil Aviation, a position his father also held from 1991 to 1993. He also heads the Ministry of Steel. He is a Member of Parliament i ...

, Minister of Civil Aviation, said that flights to

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

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 ...

would also be operational soon in the future, at least by 2023.

References

{{authority control Airports in Uttar Pradesh International airports in India Kushinagar district