Noida’s new airport turns 1 month old: 2,797 passengers and one airline gone

Noida International Airport (NIA) at Jewar completed its first month of commercial operations this week, and the numbers show a slow but steady climb rather than a runaway start. The airport opened with 86 flights connecting 5 cities in its first week; by the fourth week that had grown to 224 flights linking 15 cities. Daily passenger traffic has moved from 1,427 on opening day to 2,797 this past Monday, still well short of the terminal’s capacity, which currently matches Terminal 2 at Delhi’s IGI Airport.

The month has not been without setbacks. Air India Express, one of NIA’s three original launch carriers, has already pulled out of the airport as its parent, Air India, works through mounting losses. Akasa Air has temporarily suspended the Bengaluru and Navi Mumbai routes it started on June 16, choosing instead to run a twice-daily NIA-Mumbai service to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport. IndiGo, which has built out 105 weekly flights across 15 cities from NIA including twice-daily Lucknow and Jaipur services, has withdrawn only its Noida-Chandigarh route so far, citing weak footfall.

Between June 15 and July 13, NIA recorded 18,424 departing passengers and 18,089 arrivals, alongside 11,732 transfer passengers and 13,042 in-transit passengers. Roughly 40% of the airport’s total traffic in that window came from connecting travellers rather than origin-and-destination flyers based in the region, a signal that NIA is functioning partly as a transit hub while local demand builds.

Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) officials say the daily flight count has stabilised at around 13 to 14 outbound and inbound flights, with average daily passenger traffic between 2,500 and 2,600. YEIDA CEO R K Singh said a National Highways Authority of India interchange linking the Eastern Peripheral Expressway with the Yamuna Expressway near Dankaur is expected to open on August 15, which should ease access for travellers from Ghaziabad, Hapur and Bulandshahr.

NIA’s slower ramp-up is unfolding against a broader industry squeeze. Indian carriers have been scaling back international routes because of the closure of Pakistani airspace since April last year, oil prices pushed up by the US-Iran war, and a weakening rupee. A senior airline official described the situation bluntly: ‘Noida Airport has set sail amid the perfect storm. The first few years are going to be tough, but the long-term prospects are sound.’

Private airport operators are reportedly already watching for an opportunity, should concessionaire Zurich Airports decide to offload part of its stake in NIA, as it did at Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport in March 2017 when it sold its remaining 5% holding to Fairfax Financial Holdings.

[Source: Wikimedia Commons/Prime Minister’s Office, Government of India]