Noida Airport Gets First Landing; IndiGo Flight From Lucknow

Noida International Airport received its first commercial flight Monday morning. An IndiGo flight from Lucknow touched down at 7:58 a.m., airport officials said.

The plane, IndiGo flight 6E 2278, departed Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport at 7.12 a.m. and covered the route in 46 minutes. The first takeoff from the Jewar-based greenfield project followed shortly after, at 8.19 a.m., carrying villagers from the Jewar region whose land was acquired for the airport's first phase.

Jewar MLA Dhirendra Singh was on board the departing flight, along with officials from the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority, including CEO Rakesh Singh, additional CEO Shailendra Bhatia, and former Jewar SDM Abhay Singh.

The airport is designed as a multimodal transport hub with air, road, and rail connectivity, officials said. The project aims to serve western Uttar Pradesh and the National Capital Region, offering an alternative to Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport for passengers in the region's southern and western corridors.

For business travelers, students, and professionals in Noida, Greater Noida, and the Jewar belt, the new airport cuts ground travel time to a terminal by roughly an hour compared with driving to Delhi's airport, depending on traffic. The first phase has a single runway and a terminal capable of handling 12 million passengers annually, with expansion planned in later phases.

IndiGo is the launch carrier. Other airlines are expected to announce routes in the coming months as the airport ramps up operations.