Sonari Airport | |||||||||||
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| Summary | |||||||||||
| Airport type | Public | ||||||||||
| Owner | Tata Steel | ||||||||||
| Operator | Airports Authority of India | ||||||||||
| Serves | Jamshedpur | ||||||||||
| Location | Sonari, Jamshedpur,Jharkhand,India | ||||||||||
| Opened | 1940; 85 years ago (1940) | ||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 146 m / 478 ft | ||||||||||
| Coordinates | 22°48′49″N086°10′5″E / 22.81361°N 86.16806°E /22.81361; 86.16806 | ||||||||||
| Website | Sonari Airport | ||||||||||
| Map | |||||||||||
  IXW Location of the airport in Jharkhand Show map of Jharkhand IXW IXW (India) Show map of India | |||||||||||
| Runways | |||||||||||
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| Statistics (April 2023 – March 2024) | |||||||||||
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| Source:AAI[1][2][3] | |||||||||||
Sonari Airport (IATA:IXW,ICAO:VEJS),[4][5] also known asJamshedpur Airport, is adomestic airport inJamshedpur,Jharkhand,India, owned byTata Steel. It is located approximately 4.4 km (2.7 mi) from the city centre. It is the main airport serving the city of Jamshedpur and adjoining regions. The airport was in commercial operations until 2016, when the operations from the airport was ceased. After efforts taken by theMinistry of Civil Aviation,Government of Jharkhand andTata Steel, TheDirectorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) granted licence to the airport for public use on 25 January 2023. It reopened for commercial operations betweenKolkata andBhubaneswar from 31 January 2023.[6]
The airport was opened in 1940 by theTata Group and gave the ownership to its subsidiary,Tata Steel. In past years, the airport was served by airlines likeKingfisher Airlines andMDLR Airlines, which discontinued services due to various reasons despite recording good traffic. 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 largerATR-42 andATR-72 aircraft respectively, operations became unviable. Scheduled flights were supposed to begin in 2018 under the government'sUDAN Scheme, however, this did not take place.[7][8] After efforts from theMinistry of Civil Aviation,Government of Jharkhand andTata Steel, the airport has been reopened on 31 January 2023, with flight services provided by the new low-cost regional airline, IndiaOne Air, toKolkata andBhubaneswar.[9]
As the airport is too small to handle regular commercial operations and also because of no space for expansion due to its location within the city, the airport will be replaced with anew airport atDhalbhumgarh, which will be built at an initial investment ₹100 crores.[10] The entire cost for construction of airport will be ₹300 crores which will be completed in two phases. It will be built on a formerWorld War II era airfield. The construction of airport is expected to start once it receives necessary forest clearance from theMinistry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Govt of India, which is still under progress.[11][12]
| Airlines | Destinations |
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| IndiaOne Air | Bhubaneswar,Kolkata[13] |
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