The Belagavi Airport is a domestic airport, also known as Sambra Airport is located in Bagalkote on the Belagavi road, Sambra in the state of Karnataka operated by the Airports Authority of India ,serves as a key aviation hub in North Karnataka since 1942 .
The Aviation Hub of Belagavi:
The airport was built in the year 1942 by the Royal Air Force, which is the third oldest Airport in Karnataka. During the World War 2,the Royal Air Force used the airport as a training site by providing support to the South East Asia Command. In the year 1956,the Directorate General of Civil Aviation took control over the airport in 1956.It is followed by the Ministry of Civil Aviation in 1962.
A Historic Overview of the Evolution of Belagavi Airport:
During the 1990s,The Airport of Belagavi was mainly served by the East-West Airlines, Gujarat Airway, Indian Airlines, NEPC Airlines and Vayudoot. All the ended flights to the airport by the end of the decade.
In the year 2003,the Belagavi Airport saw the return of commercial flights with Air Deccan ,providing service from Bangalore. It also flew to Kolhapur and Mumbai for some time. In the year 2008, after the Air Deccan completed its merger with Kingfisher Airlines, it decided to end flights to Belagavi in the year 2010 when a Memorandum of Understanding was signed by the Airport Authorities of India and the Government of Karnataka.
In the year 2011, Kingfisher returned with daily flights from Mumbai, but it exited the market in the month of November in the year 2011 irrespective of its own financial difficulties. SpiceJet arrived at Belagavi in November 2012,with flights from Bangalore and later added direct flights to Chennai ,Mumbai and Hyderabad after the expansion of the Belagavi Airport in 2017. It served the airport till May for the year 2018.
In 2013,the Central Government cleared the project expansion and the work began in February 2015 at the cost of Rs 1.20 Billion. It took over 2 and half years to complete the project. The project involved extension of the runway, construction of a new isolation bay, a taxiway, an apron of three A-230 aircraft and a new 22.5 metro tall ATC tower.
Under the UDAN Scheme, after the Hubballi airport was nominated, SpiceJet shifted all its operations to Hubballi which it operated from Belagavi Airport. From 11 July 2018,the airport again came to operations after Alliance Air, a subsidiary of Air India flight service to Bangalore. This was a three times a week flight in Belagavi Airport operated by ATR 72 type aircraft.
However, Air India began service to Bangalore with its Airbus A319 air craft from 10 August 2018 on the remaining 4 days of the week .Thus it connected Belagavi with Bangalore for all the 7 days in a week. Additionally, this was the first arrival of the Airbus A319 in Belagavi Airport.
Formally, the expanded facilities were inaugurated on 14th September 2017 and AAI commissioned the new terminal and apron on 16th October, 2017.
In the year 2020,Suresh Angadi, the Union Minister of the state of Karnataka for railway, requested for the airport to be named after Kittur Rani Chennamma, the queen of Kittur.
Terminal Designed for the Future of Air Travel in the Belagavi Airport:
The current integrated Terminal was inaugurated by Ashok Gajapathi Raju, the Minister of Civil Aviation ,on the 14th September ,2017 as part of the airport expansion project in the Belagavi Airport.
There is an Indian Air Force station near the airport, where new recruits receive basic training. The terminal building is spread over 3600 square meters and has a capacity to accommodate over 300 passengers. The terminal has two baggage conveyor belts and six check in counters. However ,it also has an apron for parking of three Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 aircraft. The old apron of the airport has two parking stands designed for the ATR 72 and similar aircraft.
There are 2 additional aprons in the airport ,one on the north side of the runway which serves as an isolation bay and the other apron on the south side. Both the aprons are connected by single taxiways to runway 08/26,which measures 2,300 by 45 meter.
The Airport Authorities of India has decided to expand the airport in view of the rising traffic and future demands. The new passenger terminal has been built with an area of 20,000 square meters in the Belagavi Airport, thereby making it bigger than the existing terminal which covers 16,000 square meters by 3,600 square meters.
The terminal has been equipped with all modern facilities and all of it has three aerobridges ,which handles 1,400 passengers which includes 700 arrivals and 700 departure during peak hours. Other works included as part of the expansion is a new apron and a taxiway connecting to the runway, along with runway expansion to cater larger aircraft like the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737,which at present do not operate even though the existing new apron is capable of handling such aircraft types due to short length of the runway in the airport.
The expansion work will be undertaken at a cost of around ₹230 crore and has been scheduled to begin from January 2024 with a deadline of complete it within 2 to 3 years in the airport.
For more details you can contact: 8312562020/8312562030 or email at apdvabm@aai.AeRO
Visit for more: https://nammabelagavinews.com/