Aurangabad Airport (Marathi: औरंगाबाद विमानतळ) or Chikkalthana Airport (IATA: IXU, ICAO: VAAU) is a public airport located in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India.

Airlines and destinations

The New Integrated Terminal Building and Technical Complex

History of the project

In the early 1990s, the Government of Maharashtra decided to develop the tourists circuit of Aurangabad district (Ajanta, Ellora, Daulatabad and Bibi Ka Maqbara in Aurangabad city ), but due to lack of funds and also partly because of lack of interest of the political class and beaureucratic apathy, the project failed to take off.

In the late 1990s, the government of Maharashtra decided to handover the project to JBIC (Japan Bank for International Cooperation), which was suppose to plan, finance and implement the project. JBIC was to help in several ways, by monument conservation, augmenting Aurangabad airport, upgrading roads to the monuments, improving quality of water supply, supplementing electric supply and putting in place a visitor management system.

The overall funds required for the first phase was Rs 81.71 crore out of which Rs 69.48 crore was contributed by JBIC. It concentrated on the basic infrastructure and necessary amenities in and around Aurangabad. The second phase comprising Rs 360 crore, has received about Rs 300 crore from JBIC with the balance being brought in by the respective implementing agencies.

Upgrading

As part of the overall development and mainly to facilitate the tourists traffic, it was decided to upgrade facilities at Aurangabad airport in phases costing around Rs 130 crores. The first phase included extension and strengthening of the runway, a new taxi-track, construction of the boundary wall and other facilities. This work was completed in 2005.
As part of the second phase, a new integrated terminal building and a technical complex were constructed so that it could handle domestic as well as international traffic. The amount spent for upgrading the airport in the second phase was Rs.99.67 crores, out of which the JBIC contributed about RS.60 crores while AAI provided the remaining 39.67 crores. Civil aviation minister Praful Patel laid the foundation of the second phase in January 2006. He promised that it would be completed within one year. However, the airport was finally ready for inauguration in November 2008.

One of the most daunting problems faced by the airport management at Aurangabad was that of parking space for the aircraft. The old apron could only accommodate one wide-bodied aircraft and regular flights out of the airport were hampered due to this. As a result, chartered flights carrying foreign tourists could not land and park at the airport.

Therefore, under the second phase a new apron measuring 500 x 400 ft was built. It could accommodate up to four wide-bodied Airbus aircraft. The old apron will continue to accommodate one Airbus and one ATR. Now parking space for five to six aircraft is available and as a result chartered flights to Aurangabad are now possible, increasing the international tourist traffic.

Inauguration

The opening ceremony took place in the presence of Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Mr. Vilas Rao Deshmukh as well as Civil Aviation Minister Mr Praful Patel on 21 November 2008. The inaugural flight was to Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) carrying pilgrims for the Hajj. National air-carrier Air India launched its direct flight to Jeddah for Hajj with Airbus 310 aircraft and 200 hajis on board from the newly-constructed terminal in Aurangabad. With this, Aurangabad became the 17th airport in the country from which Hajj flights take off.

The airport was opened to regular traffic on 3 March 2009. A Mumbai-Aurangabad flight of Jet Airways was the first regular service to have landed at 8.05 am and to use Aurangabad Airport’s new terminal building.

Features of The New Integrated Terminal Building & Technical Complex.

Work completed in second phase

• New Integrated Terminal Building & Technical Complex is built at a cost of 100 crores, approx. (total cost of upgrading the airport in two phases is about 130 crores).
• The Integrated Terminal is a glass and steel building.
• New Integrated Terminal Building & Technical Complex is built over 20500 sq mts.
• The New Terminal Building is a ground + one structure.
• Daily seven planes land & takeoff from the New Terminal Building, Aurangabad airport to various cities in India besides the chartered flights.

• The Airport is used by approx 700 people on a daily basis. It has the capicity to serve 400 domestic & 300 international passengers at a time.
• New apron of 500 x 400 ft. Total five wide bodied aircraft and an ATR can now park at the airport, using both old and new apron.

• The length of the runway has been extended from 7500 ft to 9300 ft to accommodate large aircraft.
• A new taxi-track has been constructed.
• The terminal building has two aerobridges to facilitate easy flow of passengers.
• There are four entry & exit points in the new building.
• The airport now boasts of large car park which can accommodate 400 vehicles.
• A New Fire Station Building.
• A new technical block & control tower, about 30 mts high, with total floor area of the tower is 620 sq mt.This block houses operational and technical equipment and air traffic management staff.

Work completed in first phase

• Runway extension.

• Lighting for extended runway installation.

• Instrument landing system (ILS) installation.

• Fence installation and water channel bypass.

• Installation of air conditioning in departure lobby and luggage conveyor at departure.

• Runway and apron lights installation.

• Approach lights and power facility installation.

• Doppler Very High Frequency Omni-Range (DVOR) installation.

• Distance Measuring Equipment (DME) installation.

• Emergency runway and shoulder maintenance.

Facilities at New Aurangabad Airport Terminal Building

Exterior, Aurangabad Airport

• Passenger-friendly facilities like:
  • Central air-conditioning in 1.9 lakh sq. ft area.
  • Escalators, passenger lifts.
  • Aerobridges (Two)
  • Flight information display (FID)
  • Car calling facilities.
  • A ‘commercially important person’ (CIP) section.
  • A child care room.
  • Provision for duty free shop.
  • Public address system, in-line baggage handling system, CCTVs etc. are provided at the airport.

The content above was published at Airports-Worldwide.com in 2010.
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