Rajahmundry Airport is a domestic airport located at Madhurapudi region of Andhra Pradesh.
Location of Rajahmundry Airport
Rajahmundry Airport is about 18 km north of Rajahmundry in the state of Andhra Pradesh. Besides commercial flights to Hyderabad, the air strip is extensively used by helicopters of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation for its offshore oil exploration operations and other government agencies.
History of Rajahmundry Airport
Rajahmundry Airport was constructed during the rule of British Government rule in India and is spread over an area of 366 acres of land. It was served by Vayudoot between 1985 and 1994 and by VIF Airways in 1995. The Andhra Pradesh government signed an MoU worth Rs.23 crores with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) in February 2007 for modernising the airport.
New Construction of Rajahmundry Airport
The works on the new terminal building is to accommodate at about 150 passengers and a control tower were completed in 2011 at a cost of Rs.38 crores. The terminal was inaugurated on 16th May 2012. The AAI`s plans to extend the existing runway from 1,749 metres to 3,125 metres to enable landing of aircraft like the Airbus A320 have met with resistance from local land owners. Approximately 700 more acres would be needed for this expansion.
Runway Length of Rajahmundry Airport
The limited by runway length of the airlines, that operates smaller 70 seat turbo-prop aircraft like the ATR-72 (Jet Airways) and the Q-400 (SpiceJet) into Rajahmundry.
Importance of Rajahmundry Airport
The people from East Godavari District and West Godavari district use Rajahmundry Airport to travel to Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai.