Sheikh ul-Alam International Airport also known as Srinagar Airport and Budgam Airbase, is an

international 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 longer ...

serving Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir,

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 ...

. It is owned by the

Indian Air Force The Indian Air Force (IAF) is the air arm of the Indian Armed Forces. Its complement of personnel and aircraft assets ranks third amongst the air forces of the world. Its primary mission is to secure Indian airspace and to conduct aerial w ...

, and the

Airports Authority of India The Airports Authority of India, or AAI, is a public sector enterprise under the ownership of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India. It is responsible for creating, upgrading, maintaining, and managing civil aviation infrastruc ...

operates 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 the airport. It was designated as an international airport in 2005. It has an integrated terminal and one

asphalt Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term ...

runway. The airport is actually located in

Budgam Budgam (), known as Badgom (; ) in Kashmiri, is a town in Budgam district in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, India. In the 2001 census, it was recorded as having a notified area committee,This gives the population of Budgam adgamN. ...

, which is from Srinagar.

History

Originally, the Srinagar Airport was used only by the

. During the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947, the airport received an

airlift An airlift is the organized delivery of supplies or personnel primarily via military transport aircraft. Airlifting consists of two distinct types: strategic and tactical. Typically, strategic airlifting involves moving material long distan ...

of Indian troops who prevented Pakistan from capturing the city of Srinagar. Although the airport was small and lacked landing aids, the airlift was still carried out successfully on 27 October. In September 1965, the Srinagar Airport was subjected to an air raid amid the

Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 or the Second Kashmir War was a culmination of skirmishes that took place between April 1965 and September 1965 between Pakistan and India. The conflict began following Pakistan's Operation Gibraltar, which was d ...

, which left some aircraft damaged. In 1979, the

established a

at the airport. The terminal was modified in February 1998 to be able to handle international Hajj flights, which first started operating from Srinagar in January 2002. During 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 referre ...

in 1999, the airport was taken over completely by the Air Force, and civilian flights were prohibited from landing. In March 2005, the airport was granted international status by the Indian government. In 2006, the airport was renamed Sheikh-ul-Alam International Airport after the Kashmiri patron saint. An expanded terminal, able to serve both domestic and international flights, was inaugurated on 14 February 2009 by politician

Sonia Gandhi Sonia Gandhi (''née'' Maino; born 9 December 1946) is an Indian politician. She is the longest serving president of the Indian National Congress, a social democratic political party, which has governed India for most of its post-independe ...

. It was part of a larger expansion project that also included an increase in the number of parking stands from four to nine. The total cost of the project was , fully provided by the Indian government. On the same day,

Air India Express Air India Express is an Indian low-cost airline headquartered in Kochi, Kerala. It is operated by Air India Express Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Indian flag carrier airline Air India. It operates around 649 flights per week to 33 desti ...

started once weekly flights to

Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics ...

, the first regularly scheduled international flights from Srinagar. However, due to low demand from passengers, the flights were terminated in January 2010. In 2019, the authorities started planning to create a new

airport terminal An airport terminal is a building at an airport where passengers transfer between ground transportation and the facilities that allow them to board and disembark from an aircraft. Within the terminal, passengers purchase tickets, transfer th ...

handling only

international flight An international flight is a form of commercial flight within civil aviation where the departure and the arrival take place in different countries. Regular international passenger air service began in August 1919 with a flight going from Lond ...

s, which would leave the domestic ones in the older 2009 building.

Infrastructure

Terminal Interior Srinagar International Airport

The Srinagar Airport has an integrated terminal, handling both domestic and international flights. It covers and can serve 950 passengers at a time: 500 domestic and 450 international passengers. The terminal is designed to look like the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over ...

and has a sloping roof that facilitates snow removal. Amenities include a food court, some small independent food outlets, a

handicraft A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...

s shop,

ATM ATM or atm often refers to: * Atmosphere (unit) or atm, a unit of atmospheric pressure * Automated teller machine, a cash dispenser or cash machine ATM or atm may also refer to: Computing * ATM (computer), a ZX Spectrum clone developed in Mo ...

s, currency exchange, chocolates shop, and

WiFi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio wa ...

. There are 4

aerobridges A jet bridge (also termed jetway, jetwalk, airgate, gangway, aerobridge/airbridge, skybridge, finger, airtube, expedited suspended passenger entry system (E-SPES), or its official industry name passenger boarding bridge (PBB)) is an enclosed, ...

linked with the terminal. There is a single

runway, 13/31, with dimensions . It has been equipped to handle

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 ...

approaches since February 2011. Several food joints like

KFC KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) is an American fast food restaurant chain headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, that specializes in fried chicken. It is the world's second-largest restaurant chain (as measured by sales) after McDonald's, with 2 ...

and

Pizza Hut Pizza Hut is an American multinational restaurant chain and international franchise founded in 1958 in Wichita, Kansas by Dan and Frank Carney. They serve their signature pan pizza and other dishes including pasta, breadsticks and dessert at d ...

are also available in the airport since 2018. In September 2021, Aviation Minister

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 ...

announced that the terminal will be expanded from the present 25,000 sq. m. to 63,000 sq. m., from an investment of ₹ 1,500 crore. Aircraft at Srinagar Airport

Night landing

In December 2017, it was announced that the airport would handle night operations. Later in August 2018, a test flight was conducted by DGCA Team and it was passed. On 19 March 2021, commercial night flying operations at the airport started as Go-First flight bound for Delhi took off at 19:15 hrs IST. Before 19 March 2021, the last flight that took off from the airport was at 17:45 hrs IST.

Statistics

Airlines and destinations

Notable accidents and incidents

On 7 September 1965, amid the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, four fighter jets of the

Pakistan Air Force , "Be it deserts or seas; all lie under our wings" (traditional) , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = ...

attacked the Srinagar airport. An Indian Air Force

Douglas C-47 Skytrain The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota ( RAF, RAAF, RCAF, RNZAF, and SAAF designation) is a military transport aircraft developed from the civilian Douglas DC-3 airliner. It was used extensively by the Allies during World War II and remain ...

and an

Indian Airlines Indian Airlines was a division of Air India Limited. It was based in Delhi and focused primarily on domestic routes, along with several international services to neighbouring countries in Asia. It was a division of Air India Limited after ...

Douglas DC-3 The Douglas DC-3 is a propeller-driven airliner manufactured by Douglas Aircraft Company, which had a lasting effect on the airline industry in the 1930s to 1940s and World War II. It was developed as a larger, improved 14-bed sleeper versi ...

were destroyed during the air raid. A ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...

'' article published the following day reported that one Indian aircraft and a " Caribou transport of the United Nations observers headquarters" were damaged.

Access

The airport is located about from the city of Srinagar. There is a

car park A parking lot (American English) or car park ( British English), also known as a car lot, is a cleared area intended for parking vehicles. The term usually refers to an area dedicated only for parking, with a durable or semi-durable surfac ...

with 250 spaces. The government provides a paid bus service between the airport and the Tourist Reception Centre near

Lal Chowk Lal Chowk () is a city square in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India. The square was given its name by left-wing activists who were inspired by the Russian Revolution as they fought the princely state's Maharaja, Hari Singh. It has tradition ...

, while the Airports Authority of India operates a free bus service between the terminal and the airport entrance gate away. The airport is also served by taxis and car rental agencies, which have their booths outside the terminal.

References

External links

*
Srinagar International Airport
at the Airports Authority of India {{Indian Air Force Buildings and structures in Srinagar Airports in Jammu and Kashmir Transport in Srinagar