Puducherry Airport is an airport located at Lawspet in Puducherry, a Union territory of India. Puducherry airport is a domestic airport. The airport has single runway of 3983 feet long at an elevation of 118 feet. Previously this airport was not commercially operational. Focusing on the rate of tourist traffic, the Airport Authority of India opened this airport to commercial flights after receiving the approval from the Central Government. The new terminal was inaugurated on 17 January 2013 with the arrival of the first SpiceJet flight to the airport from Bengaluru.
The airport has charter flights and the local flying training school operating out of this airport. The airport at Puducherry can accommodate landing of a small aircraft only and has flights coming in from Bengaluru and Hyderabad. However, one can get a connecting flight while coming from Delhi, Kochi, Kolkata and Mumbai.
Location of Puducherry Airport
Distance of Puducherry Airport from city center is 7 km. Puducherry railway station is at a distance of 7.4 km and local bus terminus is at a distance of 6.3 km from the airport. It takes 13-20 min to reach the airport from bus terminus and railway station by car.
Structure of Puducherry Airport
Puducherry Airport has one asphalt runway which is 1500 meters long and 30 meters wide. It has a new terminal building that can handle 300 passengers during peak hours. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the local Government and the Airports Authority of India in June 2007 for expansion of the airport in two phases. In the first phase, the runway was extended by 260 meters to enable landing of ATR type of aircraft along with ground support facilities and facilities for night landing of aircraft.
Future Expansion of Puducherry Airport
The Puducherry Government has decided to expand the Puducherry Airport to accommodate larger aircraft and commissioned a new Terminal building. The on-going Phase-II embraced an extension of an additional 1100 meters of runway by acquiring another 200 acres of land in the adjoining state of Tamil Nadu to operate larger jet aircraft. A terminal building, which could handle 300 passengers, was under construction and is expected to be completed very soon.
How to Reach Puducherry Airport
The nearest rail station from Puducherry is Villupuram, which is about 35 km away from the town. The railhead is well-connected to cities like New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, and Trivandrum. There are several buses that ply frequently from Chennai, Thanjavur, Trichy, Coimbatore, Bengaluru and Madurai to Puducherry.
