Hindon airport to start daily flights to Varanasi and Patna from May 1

Hindon Airport (Source: AAI)

In a first, Air India is set to launch flight services from Hindon civil terminal to Varanasi and Patna starting next month. In march, the airline completed its metro circuit from the Hindon terminal, which it has been using as Delhi -NCR's second airport since March 1, with the launch of flights to Chennai.

On May 1, an Airbus A320 aircraft with a capacity to accommodate 180 passengers, will depart from Varanasi at 11.50am to reach Hindon at 12.40pm. The flight back to Varanasi is scheduled at 1.35pm, reported Times of India. Similarly, the first flight to Patna will take off at 11.50am to reach Hindon at 1.40pm. It will leave for Patna again at 2.25pm and reach there at 4.10pm.

The report citing officials has announced that bookings for both routes have opened. As of April 14, the base fare for flights from Patna to Ghaziabad is ₹5,573 (excluding additional charges), while the fare for the return journey from Ghaziabad to Patna is ₹4,700 for the first week of May. The fare from Hindon to Varanasi is ₹3,384, with the return journey costing ₹3,669 during the same period.

The second international airport in the NCR, located in Jewar, is expected to open later this year. Meanwhile, the Hindon civil terminal has experienced a growing passenger base. Residents of Ghaziabad, Noida, East Delhi, and nearby cities like Saharanpur and Meerut are increasingly choosing to fly from this terminal to save time and travel costs.

Located about 25 km from Delhi, the terminal is well-connected via the Hindon Elevated Road and the Delhi Metro's Red Line, with stations at Shaheed Nagar, Raj Bagh, and Rajendra Nagar, as well as Vaishali station on the Blue Line.

The passenger terminal, which operates alongside the IAF airbase, now offers flight services to all major metro cities, including daily flights to Mumbai, Chennai, and Kolkata, and two daily flights to Bengaluru. AI Express also provides services to Goa, Jammu, and Bhubaneswar.

Bengaluru-based aviation company Star Air operates two flights from Hindon to Nanded in Maharashtra and Adampur in Punjab under the regional connectivity scheme. The other three routes—Bathinda, Ludhiana, and Kishanganj—are serviced by Gurgaon-based FlyBig.

The increase in flight operations has brought new challenges, as the terminal, which previously handled only Udan flights with limited traffic, is now seeing a rapid surge in demand. To accommodate this increase, there are ongoing renovations to revamp a 1.5 km road from the Sikandarpur police post to the terminal building. The Aerodrome Advisory Committee (ADC) meets regularly to discuss capacity expansion and service enhancements. Future plans include round-the-clock medical services, increased police patrolling, and improvements to passenger facilities.