Sri Guru Ram Das Ji International Airport (IATA: ATQ, ICAO: VIAR) is an international airport about 11 kilometres (7 mi) northwest of the city of Amritsar, Punjab, India. It is named after Guru Ram Das, the fourth Sikh Guru and the founder of Amritsar city. Amritsar Airport is the largest and the busiest airport in the Indian state of Punjab. It is the second largest airport in Northern India after Delhi Airport. The airport was the 3rd fastest-growing airport in India during the fiscal year 2017–18. It is a hub of cargo movements, domestically and internationally. The Airport is ranked the 6th-best regional airport in India and Central Asia in 2019 and 2020 by Skytrax. The airport is awarded as the best airport in Asia-Pacific in 2020 (2 to 5 million passengers per annum) by Airports Council International.
History
Being named after Sri Guru Ram Das Ji, this airport is located at a distance of 11 km from the city. He was the fourth Sikh Guru and the founder of Amritsar city. The arrival terminal of the city was inaugurated in 2005. In March 2006, the departure terminal has been in operation. In 2009, another terminal building was inaugurated. The airport at present have a hold of about 200 commercial flights a week, both international (United Kingdom, Singapore, UAE, Qatar etc.) and domestic. In December 2009, Amritsar Airport has become the fastest-growing airport in India.
In 1930, The Airstrip of Amritsar Rajasansi Airport was established during the British tenure and this airport was used for VVIP movements. After independence, it got connected with cities like Delhi and Srinagar. First international flight to Kabul was launched in 1960. In 1982, Air India started direct international flight from Amritsar to Birmingham (UK) with a stop at Moscow and this flight became so popular that it was termed as no.1 flight for Air India, but Air India stopped its operation at Amritsar Airport due to Operation Blue Star in 1984.
Facilities
Duty free shop at Amritsar Airport
The arrivals section of the old terminal was inaugurated in September 2005, and the departures section was made operational in March 2006. Over the years, the old terminal was systematically razed, paving way for a new integrated terminal building, built in glass and steel and equipped with modern facilities like an inline X-ray baggage inspection and conveyor system, Flight Information Display System (FIDS), Common Use Terminal Equipment (CUTE), and CCTV for surveillance among others, which was inaugurated on 25 February 2009, with an area of approximately 40,175 square metres (432,440 sq ft), marking an improvement over the earlier 12,770-square-metre (137,500 sq ft) facility. The new terminal building is a blend of modern and Indian designs, constructed in glass and steel with Indian style arches and colours. For the quarter ending 30 June 2016, the airport registered a 59.6% growth of international passenger traffic.
The integrated terminal building has four aerobridges (including new recently fitted ones at bay no. 2 and bay no. 4), an annual capacity of 1.46 million passengers with a peak hour capacity of 1,200 passengers. The building has 30 check-in counters, 4 X-ray scanners (for baggage), 26 immigration counters, 10 custom counters, 12 security check booths, and 4 conveyor belts for arrivals. The apron has been extended to cater for parking of a total of 25 aircraft (8 Category ‘E’, 3 Category ‘D’ and 13 Category ‘C’ types of aircraft & 1 category ‘E’ for cargo) from the earlier capacity of 15 aircraft and strengthened for parking of Category ‘C’ type of aircraft. The departure and arrival halls operate duty-free shops. The departure hall also accommodates foreign currency exchange service, a book store, restaurants and other shops for the convenience of departing passengers. The airport registered India’s highest passenger growth of over 48% for the year 2017–2018. Currently, the flights coming in the airport connect it direct to over 20 destinations across India and other countries.
Terminal
Bird’s eye view of Amritsar International Airport taken from an aircraft taking off
The Amritsar Airport is spread over an area of 37,000 sq. meters with 27 check-in counters, 12 immigration counters, 12 custom counters, and 2 security check booths and can handle 600 passengers at arrival and 600 passengers at departure.
Runway
The Airport is a CAT III ILS compliant airport. During 2016–17 runway upgrade, the flexible portion runway was strengthened and inset lighting installed for ILS CAT III at a cost of 1.5 billion rupees. On 12 October 2017, the Airports Authority of India issued CAT III-B low visibility procedures (LVP) for Amritsar Airport allowing landing at 50 m visual range. Before Installation of CAT III ILS, CAT II ILS became operational on 23 December 2011 and reduced the visibility requirement for an aircraft landing at Amritsar Airport on Runway 34 from the existing 650 metres to 350 metres benefiting airlines in increased safety and avoiding diversions to other airports resulting in better operational and environmental efficiency.
Airlines and destinations
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Passenger
Arrivals area of the airport
Departures area of the airport
Terminal view of the airport
| Airlines | Destinations |
|---|---|
| Air India | Birmingham, Delhi, London–Heathrow, Mumbai, Nanded, Patna |
| Air India Express | Dubai–International, Sharjah |
| Go First | Delhi, Mumbai, Srinagar |
| IndiGo | Bangalore, Delhi, Dubai–International, Goa, Jammu, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Pune, Sharjah, Srinagar |
| Qatar Airways | Doha |
| Scoot | Singapore |
| SpiceJet | Ahmedabad, Delhi, Dubai–International, Durgapur, Guwahati, Jaipur, Patna |
| Vistara | Delhi, Mumbai |
Statistics
Future Plans
Considering the High Traffic at Airport, The Ministry of Civil Aviation has proposed to expand the current integrated passenger terminal at the cost of 240 Crore, the existing capacity of 2.5 Million Passengers per annum will increase to 5.5 Million Passengers per annum.
Along with this projects costing 60 Crores have been approved for construction of addition aprons, parking stands of aircraft and upgrading of terminal building. Projects have been approved and are expected to complete on schedule.
Amritsar Airport is also proposed to leased out for privatisation on a Public Private Partnership basis, along with 5 other major airports of Airports Authority of India. With privatisation, the infrastructure at airport is expect to improve further.
With the completion of Delhi–Amritsar–Katra Expressway which is currently under construction, the travel time from Amritsar Airport to Delhi Airport will half from current 8 hours to 4 hours. This will likely result in negative passenger enplanement growth for this route.
Connectivity
Road
The Airport is connected by 8 lane National Highway 354, which runs from Amritsar to Ajnala. Taxi can be taken from the taxi stand of the airport. Both Ola Cabs and Uber are available in the city. Autos and local buses also connect the city to the airport.
Metrobus
Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport is connected by Route 501 of Amritsar Metrobus which connects it directly to Amritsar Junction, Golden Temple and many other locations in the network of Amritsar Metrobus. MetroBus operated at a frequency of every 10–15 minutes.