Farmers Board Historical First Flight From Noida International Airport

Nodia:  Marking a historic milestone in India's aviation history, commercial flight operations officially commenced at the newly constructed Noida International Airport in Jewar on Monday. In a highly symbolic and emotional gesture, the very first outbound flight from the mega greenfield airport departed for Lucknow carrying a special delegation of approximately 170 local farmers, including 20 women, who had voluntarily contributed their ancestral land for the mega infrastructure project.  

The inaugural operations began earlier in the morning when an IndiGo flight from Lucknow's Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport touched down at the Jewar facility, receiving a traditional water cannon salute.

The same aircraft then prepared for its historic outbound journey to the state capital, transforming the lives of agricultural workers who transitioned from tilling the fields to flying over them. Led by local Jewar MLA Dhirendra Singh, the group traveled to Lucknow to meet Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to express their mutual gratitude for the region's massive economic transformation.  

Union Civil Aviation Minister Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu interacted with the farmers at the terminal and distributed commemorative boarding passes. Naidu highlighted that the government intends to develop the surrounding Yamuna Expressway zone into a thriving aerotropolis, bringing extensive multinational investments and creating over one lakh direct and indirect employment opportunities.  

Developed under a Public-Private Partnership model with an initial phase investment of ₹11,200 crore, the airport features a 3,900-meter runway and currently boasts an annual capacity of 12 million passengers. Following this historic flight, regular commercial services immediately commenced to major tech hubs like Bengaluru. Officials project that consecutive expansion phases will scale up the facility to support five operational runways and manage 225 million passengers annually by 2040, securing its place among the largest transit hubs globally.