Sonari Airport

Sonari Airport (IATA: IXW, ICAO: VEJS)[1][2] is a public airport located in Jamshedpur, in the state of Jharkhand, India.

Sonari Airport

Jamshedpur Airport
Summary
Airport typePublic
OperatorTATA Steel
ServesJamshedpur, Tatanagar
LocationSonari (Jharkhand)
Elevation AMSL146 m / 478 ft
Coordinates22°48′49″N 086°10′5″E
Map
IXW
Location of the airport in India
IXW
IXW (India)
Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
08/26 1,222 4,010 Asphalt

History

The aerodrome, which is spread over 25 acres, first opened in 1940. There are no scheduled flights into this airport, however in the past years, the airport was served by airlines like Kingfisher Airlines and MDLR Airlines which discontinued services due to various reasons despite recording good loads. While MDLR ceased operations due to internal issues, Kingfisher had to discontinue services in November 2009 after load restrictions were imposed due to the short length of the runway. Since Kingfisher operated larger ATR 42 and ATR 72 aircraft respectively, operations became unviable. Scheduled flights were supposed to begin in 2018 under the government's UDAN scheme, however this did not take place.[3][4]

Airlines and destinations

AirlinesDestinations
North East Shuttles Charter: Kolkata[5][6]

New airport plans

Tata Steel has proposed a new airport named Tata steel International airport for the city of Jamshedpur on 600 acres in the Gamharia area. The airport is to have a 7,000 feet long runway and will be able to handle Airbus A320 aircraft . This is not possible at Sonari Airport.[7] This plan was stuck until early 2017 but has since been revived.[8][9]

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by the AAI and the Jharkhand government on 20 February 2012 for establishing a new airport in Jamshedpur. The state government will provide land to AAI for developing the airport that will initially support ATR-72 sized aircraft with options for later expansion when air traffic increases.[10] A new location Dhalbhumgarh Airport, formerly an RAF World War II base, has also been proposed.[11][12]

References

  1. "Jamshedpur on ch-aviation". ch-aviation. Retrieved 25 December 2018.
  2. "Jamshedpur Sonari Airport Profile | CAPA". centreforaviation.com.
  3. "UDAN for steel city". Telegraphindia.com. Retrieved 25 December 2018.
  4. "Next round of bidding under UDAN scheme likely in three months, says Jayant Sinha". Thehindubusinessline.com. Retrieved 25 December 2018.
  5. Law, Ayan PramanikAbhishek. "New airline likely to start operations from Oct". @businessline.
  6. "Air services to Jamshedpur resume from Feb 15 | Kolkata News - Times of India". The Times of India.
  7. "TATA Steel and TRIL inks JV for Jamshedpur airport". Steelguru.com. 29 June 2011. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
  8. "International airport in Gamharia stuck over land acquisition tangle". 5 April 2015. Retrieved 25 December 2018.
  9. Bisoee, Animesh (18 May 2017). "Steel city airport plans take wing". Telegraphindia.com. Retrieved 25 December 2018.
  10. "Jamshedpur, Bokaro to have airports soon; Airports Authority of India signs MoU". The Economic Times. 20 February 2012. Retrieved 20 February 2012.
  11. "GOVT ZEROED IN ON DHALBHUMGARH FOR NEW JAMSHEDPUR AIRPORT".
  12. "Pact to revive WWII airport near Jamshedpur". 25 January 2019.
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