The huge £2.7m airport being built smack in middle of a massive desert

Expected to be operational by April 2025, the new Noida International Airport, also known as Jewar Airport, is under construction near Jewar in the Gautam Buddha Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh, India.

This ambitious project, located in the planned YEIDA city, will serve the National Capital Region (NCR) and aims to relieve the heavy traffic load at Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi.  With a total project cost of Rs 29,561 crore (£2.7 million), the airport is set to become India's and Asia's largest airport.

Last year, the airport revealed its IATA code as DXN, marking a significant milestone towards its official opening and allowing customers to identify the airport across various platforms.

The initial phase of the project will feature one runway and a single terminal, designed to handle approximately 12 million passengers annually.  Future phases will expand the airport’s capabilities, with projections indicating it could accommodate up to 70 million passengers per year upon completion of the fourth phase. The ultimate plan envisions the airport expanding into a 7,200-acre, eight-runway facility.

At the recent Routes Asia 2024 event in Langkawi, representatives from Noida International Airport, a Routes 360 member, discussed the latest developments and strategic vision for route development. CCO Kiran Kain and Surabhi Rana, head of air service development, highlighted the immediate priority of expanding DXN’s domestic network.

Partnerships have already been established with major carriers such as IndiGo and Akasa Air to achieve this goal. IndiGo, India’s largest airline, is set to be the inaugural carrier at DXN, while Akasa Air plans to base aircraft at Noida to operate both domestic and international flights.

Speaking about DXN’s Routes 360 membership, Rana said: “We are utilizing it to the maximum! We are a new airport, not many in the aviation community know about us, especially the airlines who are not operating into India. That is where Routes 360 plays an important role for us, we are talking about key developments, construction, and opening dates that is keeping the airline community abreast about the latest developments.”

The Noida International Airport Limited (NIAL) is the implementing agency on behalf of the Government of Uttar Pradesh, developing the project through a public-private partnership model. In 2019, Flughafen Zürich AG, the operator of Zurich Airport in Switzerland, won the bid to build and operate the airport for 40 years.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is also constructing a 31-kilometre long greenfield highway from the airport to Sector-65, Faridabad on the Delhi–Mumbai Expressway, enhancing connectivity.

The project site is strategically located 72 kilometres from Indira Gandhi International Airport, which is nearing peak capacity. Jewar Airport is also 36 km from Bulandshahr, 38 km from Palwal, 60 km from Noida, and 70 km from Faridabad, Ghaziabad, and Mathura.

Additionally, it is about 40 km from Pari Chowk in Greater Noida, 65 km from Aligarh, 65 km from Gurgaon, and 130 km from Agra. Its connection to the Yamuna Expressway will facilitate easy access for domestic and international tourists to reach Agra, Mathura, and Vrindavan.

In October 2017, the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) acquired land in several villages for the first phase of construction. In January 2021, YEIDA began acquiring land for the second phase, further advancing the project towards its goal of becoming a major aviation hub in the region.