The much-awaited Adampur Civil Airport is expected to become operational in February 2024. The Airport which was a base station in the Indo-Pakistani wars of 1968 and 1971, was recently repurposed for commercial flights. The airport has been rumoured to begin operations from Jalandhar for a long time. But the wait may finally be over as Jalandhar MP Sushil Rinku presented this issue before Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya M. Scindia for opening of this airport for general public.
Government of Punjab and the Ministry of Civil Aviation has previously considered developing the Adampur base into a commercial airport to boost connectivity and socio-economic development of Jalandhar and adjoining regions. In 2017, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) completed the construction of a new passenger terminal and began commercial operations, with daily and weekly flight services to Delhi, Mumbai and Jaipur operated by SpiceJet. However, until the end of 2019, the airline stopped all operations from the airport indefinitely, due to the wake of COVID-19.
The airport terminal was revamped here with ultra-modern facilities at Rs. 125 crore and all set to host passengers with peak hour capacity of 300 passengers daily. Divulging the details, the union minister informs that the civil terminal of Adampur airport is ready to host passengers and it will become functional once airline company SpiceJet is ready to start services here. The MP had also pointed out that flight services from this airport would cater to the needs of thousands of passengers of Doaba region which is also known as NRI Hub.
MP Sushil Rinku mentioned that the airport would also provide wings to aspirations of the business community of this industrial town; therefore early resumption of flights from Adampur Airport was the need of the hour. He also takes up the issue of initiating international flights from this civil airport to cater to the needs of international students and the NRI community of this region. Rinku said that the union minister has told him that the construction work of the civil terminal was already completed and flights would be started by next month once the airline company was ready to provide services here.