Chaudhary Charan Singh Airport

Chaudhary Charan Singh Airport (IATA: LKO, ICAO: VILK) is an international airport serving Lucknow, the capital of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is situated in the Amausi area of the city, and was earlier known as Amausi Airport before being renamed after Chaudhary Charan Singh, the fifth prime minister of India.

Chaudhary Charan Singh Airport
Terminal-2, CCS Airport
IATA: LKO ICAO: VILK
Summary
Airport type	Public
Owner	Airports Authority of India
Operator	Adani Group
Serves	Lucknow and Central Uttar Pradesh
Location	Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India
Elevation AMSL	123 m / 404 ft
Coordinates	26°45′43″N 080°53′00″E
Website	www.aai.aero/en/airports/lucknow
Map
LKO Show map of Uttar Pradesh LKO Show map of India
Runways
Direction Length Surface m ft 09/27 2,744 9,003 Concrete/asphalt
Statistics (April 2019 - March 2020)
Passengers 5,433,757 (1.8%) Aircraft movements 38,494 (7.8%) Cargo tonnage 14,882 (143.5%)
Sources: AIP from AAI[1] Statistics from AAI[2][3][4]

History

The airport was constructed in 1986 to facilitate corporate and government officials. With an increasing number of passengers, AAI decided to upgrade the airport. On 17 July 2008, the Government of India officially renamed it Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport. It was granted international status in May 2012.[5]

The airport was constructed with the purpose of facilitating VVIPs. It was only in 2005 when the AAI took decision to upgrade the airport owing to an increased number of passengers, and also because of the introduction of private operators in the sector.[6]

A new terminal, equipped with the latest technology, at Lucknow's Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport, has been operative since 2 June 2012. It is used both for arrivals and departures of domestic and international flights. The new terminal is a three-tier building which can accommodate around 2000 passengers at a time.[6]

Structure

Landing amenities

CCS International Airport has ILS CAT-III-B compliant for landing in bad weather and foggy conditions. Delhi, Lucknow, Jaipur, Amritsar and Kolkata are the only airports in India with ILS CAT-III-B which helps flights land safely even with visibility as low as 50 metres.[7]

Terminals

Visitor's lobby overlooking Departure Hall, inside view of the new terminal building

The airport has two operational terminals and one in the planning stage:

Terminal 1

• The original terminal, built to complement Charbagh Railway Station's architecture, is now used for international flights after the opening of Terminal 2.[8] It has two arrival and three departing gates as well as two immigration counters.

Terminal 2

• The terminal was inaugurated by civil aviation minister Ajit Singh on 19 May 2012 before opening on 2 June 2012.[9] With five boarding gates, Terminal 2 is used for domestic flights. Terminal 2 of Lucknow airport deals with huge passenger traffic every year.[10] Air traffic growth has put some pressure on aerodromes as of 2017. Minister of State for Civil Aviation said, "project management consultant has been awarded for expansion of existing terminal building for an estimated cost of Rs 880 crore".[11]

CCS International Airport

CCS International Airport airside

Terminal 3

• On 2 May 2018, Suresh Prabhu, Minister of Civil Aviation (India) announced that a new terminal building will have a capacity to handle 24.6 million passengers annually and will be built at of INR 1383 crores.[12]
• On 25 February 2019, Adani Group was awarded with the operations and expansion of the existing as well as new terminal.[13][14]

Connectivity

The airport is connected to Lucknow by Lucknow Metro. The Red Line metro station of Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport metro station is the airport terminus for Lucknow Metro's Red Line with the ending terminus being Munshipulia.

Airlines and destinations

Airlines	Destinations	Refs.
Air India	Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai	[15][16]
Air India Express	Dubai–International
Alliance Air	Jaipur, Varanasi	[17][18]
Flydubai	Dubai–International
Flynas	Dammam, Riyadh	[19]
GoAir	Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chandigarh	[20]
IndiGo	Agra, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Chennai, Dehradun, Delhi, Guwahati, Goa, Hyderabad, Indore, Jammu, Kolkata, Mumbai, Patna, Pune, Raipur,[21] Sharjah, Srinagar	[22][23]
Oman Air	Muscat
Saudia	Jeddah, Riyadh
Thai Smile	Bangkok–Suvarnabhumi
Vistara	Delhi	[24]

Awards

• The airport was awarded AAI's "Best Airport" award in July 2013 along with Jodhpur Airport.[25]
• Lucknow airport was rated second-best in the category of small airports catering to 5-10 million passengers per annum by Airports Council International, a global non-profit organisation of airport operators.[26]
• In 2018, Lucknow Airport was awarded the best airport in the category "Best Airport by Size and Region (2-5 million passengers per year in Asia-Pacific Region)" by the Airports Council International.[27]
• The Passenger Terminal 2 Building's Architects, S. Ghosh & Associates were awarded the NDTV-Grohe Infrastructure Architecture Design of the Year Award in 2014 for the project. Infrastructure Architecture Design of the Year (Sports, Transport, Bridges)

See also

• Lal Bahadur Shastri Airport
• Airports in India
• List of busiest airports in India

References

1. "LUCKNOW/DOMESTIC" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 April 2012. Retrieved 20 May 2012.
2. "Traffic News for the month of March 2020: Annexure-III" (PDF). Airports Authority of India. 21 May 2020. p. 3. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
3. "Traffic News for the month of March 2020: Annexure-II" (PDF). Airports Authority of India. 21 May 2020. p. 3. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 May 2018. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
4. "Traffic News for the month of March 2020: Annexure-IV" (PDF). Airports Authority of India. 21 May 2020. p. 3. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 May 2018. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
5. "The Times Of India". Retrieved 21 August 2014.
6. "Lucknow Airport- Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport, Lucknow - Lucknow Travel Guide".
7. "Airport ready to facilitate landing in 50 m visibility | Lucknow News - Times of India". Timesofindia.indiatimes.com. 9 December 2016. Retrieved 3 May 2018.
8. "Swanky Amausi readyfor take-off after a month". Times of India. 17 December 2011.
9. "New Terminal At Lucknow Airport". Airport International. 31 May 2012. Archived from the original on 1 June 2012.
10. "Airports Authority of India". Archived from the original on 15 September 2014.
11. "Kerala firm gets government nod for sea plane operations: Union minister Jayant Sinha". The Financial Express. 20 July 2017. Retrieved 3 May 2018.
12. "Govt nod for 3 new airport terminal buildings at Chennai, Lucknow and Guwahati - Times of India". Timesofindia.indiatimes.com. Retrieved 3 May 2018.
13. Manoj, Ashwini Phadnis & P. "Adani lands 5 airports with winning bids". @businessline. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
14. "Adani group wins bids to operate five airports". 25 February 2019. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
15. "Air India and Alliance Air schedule list". airindia.in. Retrieved 10 February 2019.
16. "Air India to Launch Direct Lucknow-Jeddah Flight from Winter".
17. "Flights". www.google.com. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
18. https://www.google.com/flights?hl=en#flt=/m/022tq4.VNS.2020-03-29;c:INR;e:1;sd:1;t:f;tt:o
19. "Flynas Flight Schedule". flynas.com. Retrieved 9 September 2019.
20. "GoAir flight schedules". goair.in.
21. "IndiGo to commence Lucknow-Raipur service in Mar-2020". CAPA. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
22. "IndiGo flight schedules". goindigo.in.
23. https://www.goindigo.in/information/flight-schedule.html
24. "Vistara flight schedules". airvistara.com.
25. "Wayback Machine" (PDF). 23 January 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 January 2014. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
26. "Lucknow airport judged second best in small airport category - Times of India".
27. "Asia-Pacific". Aci.aero. Retrieved 3 May 2018.

External links

• Amausi Airport at Airports Authority of India website
• Accident history for LKO at Aviation Safety Network