Shirdi Airport is a domestic airport serving the city of

Shirdi Shirdi (; also known as Sainagar) is a city in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is located in the Rahata taluka of Ahmednagar District. It is accessible via the Ahmednagar–Malegaon State Highway No.10, approximately from Ahmednagar and ...

, Maharashtra,

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. It is located at Kakadi, about southwest of the city and from

Sangamner Sangamner is a city and a municipal council located in the Ahmednagar District of Maharashtra state in India. It derives its name from the site of the ''sangam'' (confluence) of three rivers in the area: Pravara, Mhalungi, and Adhala. It is ...

. It is the fourth busiest airport in the state after

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 ...

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, ( the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million As of 2021, Pune Metropolitan Region is the largest i ...

, and

Nagpur Nagpur (pronunciation: aːɡpuːɾ is the third largest city and the winter capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the 13th largest city in India by population and according to an Oxford's Economics report, Nagpur is projected to ...

airports. The airport, spread over 400 hectares, is owned by the

Maharashtra Airport Development Company Maharashtra Airport Development Company Limited abbreviated as (MADC), is a Special Purpose Company constituted in 2002 by the Government of Maharashtra (GoM) to plan, construct, operate and maintain airports in the State. The government has en ...

(MADC) and was inaugurated by

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

Ram Nath Kovind Ram Nath Kovind (; born 1 October 1945) is an Indian politician who served as the 14th President of India from 2017 to 2022. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He is the second person after K. R. Narayanan, from the Dalit community ...

on 1 October 2017. Communication Navigation Surveillance (CNS) and

Air Traffic Control Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled airs ...

(ATC) at the airport is operated by the Airports Authority of India (AAI).

History

The

Ahmednagar district Ahmednagar district (Marathi pronunciation: �ɦ(ə)məd̪nəɡəɾ is the largest district of Maharashtra state in western India. The historical Ahmednagar city is the headquarters of the district. Ahmednagar and Sangamner are largest cities in ...

administration officially acquired land for the

greenfield airport A greenfield airport is an aviation facility with greenfield project characteristics. The designation reflects certain environmental qualities (using previously undeveloped or empty greenfield land, for example) and commissioning, planning and cons ...

project on 22 December 2009. The Rs. 340 crore airport project was part of the State Government's effort to promote religious tourism at Shirdi, known for the temple of

Sai Baba Sai Baba or Saibaba ( hi, साईं , "Swami", and , " Baba") is an honorific term for ascetics in India. It may refer in particular to: People * Sai Baba of Shirdi (–1918), Indian guru * Sathya Sai Baba (1926–2011), born Sathya Narayana Ra ...

, among the most revered spiritual gurus in India. Around 80,000 devotees who visit the temple town daily used to access Shirdi via road, Sainagar Shirdi Railway Station, Kopargaon Railway Station and the

Aurangabad Aurangabad ( is a city in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the administrative headquarters of Aurangabad district and is the largest city in the Marathwada region. Located on a hilly upland terrain in the Deccan Traps, Aurangabad is the ...

and

Pune airport Pune Airport is a customs airport located approximately northeast of the historic centre of Pune in the state of Maharashtra, India. The airport is a civil enclave operated by the Airports Authority of India at the western side of Lohagaon ...

s located 125 km and 186 km respectively from Shirdi. The single runway was initially intended to be 60 metres wide and 2,000 metres long and the airport was expected to start operations in December 2011. However, the MADC decided to extend the length of the runway to 3,200 metres to enable operations of larger aircraft and consequently the project missed its deadline. Runway length now stands at 2,500 metres. Plans for a terminal building costing around Rs. 40 crore were abandoned due to shortage of funds and a smaller terminal costing 3-4 crores was built instead. The work was expected to be completed before the forthcoming centenary celebrations of Sai Baba's

Samadhi ''Samadhi'' (Pali and sa, समाधि), in Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism and yogic schools, is a state of meditative consciousness. In Buddhism, it is the last of the eight elements of the Noble Eightfold Path. In the Ashtanga Yoga ...

that will draw thousands of devotees to the pilgrim town from various parts of the country as well as abroad. MADC completed the construction work by February 2016 and applied to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for an aerodrome licence to commence operation of non-scheduled flights. The DGCA issued the licence on 21 September 2017 and stated that the runway of 2,500 meters is capable of handling Code 3C type aircraft such as the

Airbus 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 ...

and

Boeing 737 The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Boeing Renton Factory, Renton Factory in Washington (state), Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the Boeing 707, 7 ...

. An Alliance Air ATR-72 operated a test run from Mumbai Airport, landing at Shirdi on 26 September 2017.

Airlines and destinations

Statistics

Infrastructure

The airport is equipped with a runway in length. The terminal covers and has a capacity for 500 passengers daily. In July 2019, the state government gave approvals for the extension of the runway from to , construction of a new terminal building to increase hourly passenger capacity from 300 per hour to 1000 per hour and operationalisation of night-landing facilities at the airport. A

DVOR Very high frequency omnirange station (VOR) is a type of short-range radio navigation system for aircraft, enabling aircraft with a receiving unit to determine its position and stay on course by receiving radio signals transmitted by a network ...

system was installed at the airport in September 2019 to enable aircraft to land at the airport in low visibility.

References

External links

MADC Shirdi WebsiteShirdi Airport WebsiteShirdi airport to be ready in a year

Shirdi airport work in full swing: Official
{{Airports in India Airports in Maharashtra Transport in Shirdi Airports established in 2017 2017 establishments in Maharashtra