About Rajkot Airport

Rajkot Airport (IATA: RAJ, ICAO: VARK) is a public airport located in the middle of Rajkot, Gujarat, India. Daily flights are operated by Jet Airways, Air India and Ventura air connect. Rajkot Airport has parking apron for one Boeing 737 and one ATR 72, with the terminal having capacity for 125 people. Rajkot Airport is the busiest airport in Saurastra region and third busiest in Gujarat behind Sardar Patel International Airport and Vadodara Airport.

Rajkot Urban Development Authority and Rajkot Municipal Corporation have proposed a plan to extend Rajkot airport runway from current 5,400 feet (1,600 m) to 6,000 feet (1,800 m) to accommodate larger aircraft and to provide connectivity to major cities than Mumbai to cater to a large demand from the manufacturing companies located in Rajkot. This was not possible because even after the involvement of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and Civil Aviation Ministry, the former could not negotiate land acquisition prices with Western Rail.

However, the Airport now suffers from considerable capacity restraints, due to the expansion of the city and because of the residential and commercial buildings which have been built around it - this renders the plan to extend the runway unfeasible. The present strip is incapable of serving aircraft larger than Airbus 320 family/Boeing 737-800 which is the largest aircraft operating from the airport.

As such, plans for an entirely new airport have been submitted, and civil aviation minister Praful Patel has suggested that a new bigger airport be developed on 500 acres (2.0 km2) of land near the Rajkot-Gondal-Jamnagar highway, around 10 km away from the city and nearer Khirasara village. The proposal has been accepted.

The Airport is only 2 km away from the Rajkot city center and 2.7 km from the Rajkot Railway station.

The authorities have finalised the site for the first ever international airport in Saurashtra, which will be located near Rajkot. The new airport is under construction since late 2014. The constructions are estimated to complete till 2016 Airlines like Vistara, IndiGo and Air Asia have expressed interest in opening routes to new cities like Ahmedabad, Delhi, Chennai and few other cities from the new airport.

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