Kolhapur Airport

Kolhapur Airport is an airport in Kolhapur, Maharashtra, India. It is situated at Ujlaiwadi, 9 km South-East from Kolhapur city.HistoryIn January 1939, Air Services of India, a private airline based out of Juhu Aerodrome, (which was Mumbai's airport at that time) began air services to the princely state of Kolhapur. The service was officially inaugurated by the Maharaja of Kolhapur, Honorable Shri. Rajaram Maharaj, who had shown considerable interest in the project and offered a subsidy to the company, apart from arranging for the necessary aerodrome facilities in his capital.The present Kolhapur Airport began operations in the year 1987 and was leased by the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) from Airports Authority of India (AAI) on 16 April 1997. The lease expired in February 2012 and the MIDC requested the State government in May 2012 to be relieved of the responsibility of managing the airport. The Maharashtra Government then handed over the airport to the AAI in August 2013.Future developmentsThe AAI is considering the installation of night landing facilities at the airport and is preparing a plan to use the airport for overnight parking of aircraft to reduce congestion at the Mumbai and Pune airports.