Shillong Airport is a domestic airport serving

Shillong Shillong () is a hill station and the capital of Meghalaya, a state in northeastern India, which means "The Abode of Clouds". It is the headquarters of the East Khasi Hills district. Shillong is the 330th most populous city in India with a ...

, the capital of

Meghalaya Meghalaya (, or , meaning "abode of clouds"; from Sanskrit , "cloud" + , "abode") is a state in northeastern India. Meghalaya was formed on 21 January 1972 by carving out two districts from the state of Assam: (a) the United Khasi Hills and J ...

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 Umroi, situated from the city centre.

History

The airport was constructed in the mid-1960s and became operational in the mid-1970s. Land measuring 224.16 acres was acquired for expansion of the airport in 2009. The work commenced in June 2009 and was completed in May 2010. The new terminal building, built at a cost of Rs. 30 crore, was inaugurated in June 2011. In 2015, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) was allotted land for the further expansion of the airport. In 2017, AAI upgraded infrastructure at Shillong, with the installation of an

Instrument landing system In aviation, the instrument landing system (ILS) is a precision radio navigation system that provides short-range guidance to aircraft to allow them to approach a runway at night or in bad weather. In its original form, it allows an aircraft to ...

(ILS), construction of two refuelling facilities, extension of runway and removal of flight-path obstructions. The airport received its Category 3C license from the Indian DGCA in June 2019, allowing operations of Q400/

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 ...

aircraft.

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 ...

began operations using an ATR-72 from Shillong on 20 July 2019 under the

UDAN ''Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik'' ( Hindi for "Let the common citizens of the country fly"), known by its acronym ''UDAN'' ( Hindi for "flight") is a regional airport development program of the Government of India and part of the Regional Connect ...

scheme with a daily flight from Kolkata airport. The present 6,000 ft runway was planned to be extended to about 8,000 feet to facilitate operation of narrow body jet aircraft like

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 ...

and

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 ...

. However, this would require the cutting of clusters of hillocks that would come in the way of approaching aircraft after the runway was extended. The cost of this obstacle removal was 8,000 Crores. The Meghalaya Chief minister stated that it would be difficult to go ahead with expansion of the airport at that cost.

Airlines and destinations

References

External links

Official site at the Airports Authority of India
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cawnpore - Barabanki Railway Transport in Shillong Airports in Meghalaya Indian Air Force bases 1970s establishments in Meghalaya Airports established in the 1970s Airports with year of establishment missing