Begumpet Airport
IATA:BPM ICAO:VOHY
Summary
Airport type	Military/Public
Owner/Operator	Airports Authority of India
Serves	Hyderabad
Location	Begumpet,Telangana, India
Opened	June 1936 (1936-06)
Passenger services ceased	23 March 2008 (2008-03-23)
Elevation AMSL	532 m / 1,744 ft
Coordinates	17°27′11″N078°28′03″E / 17.45306°N 78.46750°E /17.45306; 78.46750
Runways
Direction Length Surface m ft 09/27 3,230 10,597 Macadam

Begumpet Airport (IATA:BPM,ICAO:VOHY) is an airport that servesHyderabad inTelangana, India. It is located inBegumpet and caters togeneral and military aviation. The airport is home to the Begumpet Air Force Station of theIndian Air Force. Begumpet was built by thePrincely State of Hyderabad in the 1930s and served as the city's commercial airport for several decades. It eventually became overcrowded, with little room for expansion. After the opening ofRajiv Gandhi International Airport inShamshabad on 23 March 2008, Begumpet ceased all commercial operations.

In 1934–1935,Mir Osman Ali Khan, the lastnizam of thePrincely State of Hyderabad, decided to establish an airport in Begumpet on the outskirts ofHyderabad.^[1][2] TheHyderabad State Aero Club was inaugurated at Begumpet in June 1936,^[3] andPrincess Dürrüşehvar laid the foundation stone for a terminal building five months later.^[4][5] In 1937,Tata's service from Karachi to Madras began operating via Begumpet instead of theHakimpet airfield.^[3][6] The following year, the Nizam's State Railways Air Department introduced flights from Madras to Bangalore via Hyderabad. The route ceased at the onset of theSecond World War.^[7] Service to Bangalore resumed for a brief period in 1940.^[8] The airport was among the most developed in India at the time of the war.^[7]

During the war, the state government granted control of Begumpet to the Directorate of Civil Aviation.^[7] TheRoyal Air Force took over and set up a flying school in 1942.^[7][9] In May 1946, the maiden flight ofDeccan Airways from Begumpet to Bangalore took place.^[8] The airline operated India's firstHajj flight from the airport five months later.^[10] As of 1948, civilian flights to Hyderabad landed at Hakimpet while expansion work was underway at Begumpet.^[11] In May 1950, commercial airlines moved to Begumpet.^[12]

Work on the runway to enable it to handleCaravelle jets was finished in 1965.^[13] In the 1970s,Indian Airlines linked Hyderabad to seven cities in the country and used Caravelles on flights to Bombay.^[14] A new terminal was completed in 1972,^[15] and Begumpet handled 250,000 passengers in 1975.^[16] The airport had international flights to Sharjah and Kuwait in the 1990s.^[17]

In the 1990s, thegovernment of Andhra Pradesh decided to build a new airport for Hyderabad. Officials ultimately chose a site inShamshabad, 30 kilometres (19 mi) from the city.^[18] Passenger counts were climbing quickly at Begumpet, and the terminal was inadequate.^[19] There was little room to expand the airport as the development of the surrounding areas meant that Begumpet was now in the middle of the city.^[20] The growth of Hyderabad's information technology and pharmaceutical industries added more pressure to construct a new airport.^[19] In 2004, the Indian government signed aconcession agreement with the consortium building the Shamshabad airport that required commercial operations at Begumpet to cease when the new airport opened.^[18][21]

In February 2005,Lufthansa commenced a nonstop flight between Hyderabad and Frankfurt,^[22] andAir Sahara opened a hub at the airport.^[23] TheAirports Authority of India responded to the rising traffic by adding another jet bridge and five parking stands.^[24] Between April 2006 and March 2007, 5.8 million travellers passed through the airport, a 44% increase over the previous year.^[25] The final passenger flight to take off from Begumpet was aThai Airways International flight to Bangkok at 00:25 on 23 March 2008.Rajiv Gandhi International Airport opened the same day.^[26] When scheduled service ended, Begumpet was the sixth busiest airport in India and was served by 10 Indian and 13 foreign airlines.^[20]

The airport has one runway named 09/27. It measures 3,230 by 45 metres (10,597 ft × 148 ft) and is made of macadam.^[27]

Begumpet is used for flight training and houses anair force station. Businesspeople, politicians, and others fly into the airport on their private aircraft.^[28][29] Begumpet also hostsWings India, the country's firstcivilian air show. The biennial event is organised by the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, and Airports Authority of India. It was first held in October 2008 under the name India Aviation.^[30][31]

During the period of commercial operations, Begumpet was officially called Hyderabad Airport and had two terminals. The domestic terminal was named forN. T. Rama Rao; the international one, forRajiv Gandhi.^[32]

• On the night of 12 January 1978, anIndian AirlinesBoeing 737-200 operating a flight from Bombay to Hyderabad had just touched down when the crew saw a man on the runway. The aircraft struck him, and he died on the way to a hospital. The investigation determined that the man had breached security at Begumpet Airport.^[33]

Wikimedia Commons has media related toBegumpet Airport.

• Aviation portal
• Hyderabad portal
• Official website
• Accident history for HYD atAviation Safety Network

• Airports established in 1936
• Airports in Telangana
• Transport in Hyderabad, India
• Buildings and structures in Hyderabad, India
• Establishments in Hyderabad State
• 1936 establishments in British India
• 20th-century architecture in India

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