Pondicherry Airport

Puducherry Airport is an airport located at Lawspet in Pondicherry (officially Puducherry), a Union territory of India. The airport has charter flights and operations of the local flying training school. In 2007, the Pondicherry Government decided to expand the airport to accommodate larger aircraft and commissioned a new terminal building. The new terminal was inaugurated on 17 January 2013 with the arrival of a SpiceJet flight from Bangalore.HistoryThe airport was constructed in 1989. Between that year and 1991, regional airline Vayudoot flew to Chennai, Neyveli and Bangalore, however the flights were not successful and all were ended. The airport remained in disuse for the following two decades.In June 2007, a memorandum of understanding was signed between the local government and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) for expansion of the airport. For the first phase, 19.92 hectares of land were acquired at 18.95 crore. Then the new terminal was constructed and the runway extended by 260 m (853 ft), allowing for the landing of ATR aircraft. This phase was completed in late 2012. The second phase of expansion involves acquiring 200 more acres of land to extend the runway by an additional 1,100 m (3,609 ft), allowing larger jet aircraft to land at the airport.