Safdarjung Airport | |||||||||||
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 Terminal building of Safdarjung Airport | |||||||||||
| Summary | |||||||||||
| Airport type | Public | ||||||||||
| Owner | India | ||||||||||
| Operator | Airports Authority of India | ||||||||||
| Serves | New Delhi | ||||||||||
| Location | Aurobindo Marg, New Delhi | ||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 805 ft / 215 m | ||||||||||
| Coordinates | 28°35′04″N 077°12′21″E / 28.58444°N 77.20583°E | ||||||||||
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| Runways | |||||||||||
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Safdarjung Airport (IATA: N/A, ICAO: VIDD) is an airport in New Delhi, India, in the neighbourhood of the same name. Established during the British Raj as Willingdon Airfield, it started operations as an aerodrome in 1929, when it was India's second airport after the Juhu Aerodrome in Mumbai. It was used extensively during the Second World War as it was part of the South Atlantic air ferry route, and later during Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. Once situated on the edge of Lutyens' Delhi, today, it has the entire city of New Delhi around it. It remained the city's main airport until 1962, when operations shifted to Palam Airport completely by the late 1960s, as it could not support the new bigger aircraft such as jet aircraft.[1][2]
The Delhi Flying Club was established here in 1928 with two de Havilland Moth aircraft named ‘Delhi’ and ‘Roshanara’. The airport functioned until 2001, however in January 2002, due to security considerations in the post 9/11 scenario, the government closed the airport for flying activities, the club only carries out aircraft maintenance courses today.[3] Today it is mostly used for VVIP helicopter passenger flights to the Indira Gandhi International Airport including the President and the Prime Minister.[4][5] The 190 acre airport complex,[4] has Rajiv Gandhi Bhawan on its grounds, which houses the Ministry of Civil Aviation as well as the headquarters of the Airports Authority of India (AAI).
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
htflewwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "End of the road". Mint. 15 October 2009.
- ^ "Mecca for young aviators". Hindustan Times. 23 September 2011. Archived from the original on 15 July 2015.
- ^ a b "Ministries in row over Safdarjung Airport land". The Times of India. 13 April 2011. Archived from the original on 27 January 2013.
- ^ "Need to abolish airport tax". The Tribune. 4 July 2010.