Successful validation flight conducted at Noida International Airport in run-up to commercial operations from April 2025 | Business News
The upcoming Noida International Airport (NIA) at Jewar in Western Uttar Pradesh successfully completed its validation flight procedures on Monday, marking a key step in the run-up to the greenfield airport starting commercial operations a few months later.
A validation flight is vital for testing and certifying airport approach and departure procedures for aircraft. It is essentially a test flight to validate that the landing and departure procedures, infrastructure readiness, navigational and communication systems for the new runway and the airport are fully compliant with regulatory and safety standards.
“The flight conducted by IndiGo, the launch carrier for the airport, verified the airport’s approach procedures, confirming the accuracy and functionality of its navigational aids and air traffic control systems. This crucial step demonstrates NIA’s adherence to the stringent safety and operational standards required for commercial operations. Following the validation flight, NIA will finalize the required documentation for aerodrome certification and submit it to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA),” NIA said.
The airport will proceed with the next step, which is to apply for the aerodrome license—the approval from the DGCA to operate as an airport. Late August, NIA chief executive officer Christoph Schnellmann had said that the validation flight as well as aerodrome license application were scheduled for December.
According to the NIA management, the new airport is seeing considerable interest from airlines—both domestic and overseas—for international flight operations. (Express photo by Abhinav Saha)
The new airport, which will be the second major airport in the National Capital Region after Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA), is expected to start commercial operations from April 2025. The upcoming airport is located around 90 kilometres (by road) from the IGIA.
The NIA was earlier scheduled to start operations by the end of this year, but the timeline was extended due to delays in delivery of certain construction materials and equipment due to global supply chain constraints.
The runway work for the upcoming airport is complete and the calibration of the Instrument Landing System (ILS) and Precision Approach Path Indicator (PAPI)—the critical step pertaining to runway operations before a validation flight—were successfully completed in October by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) with support from the DGCA. The airport’s terminal and other supporting infrastructure is in an advanced stage of construction.
Story continues below this ad
According to the NIA management, the new airport is seeing considerable interest from airlines—both domestic and overseas—for international flight operations, apart from domestic flights by Indian airlines. In August, Schnellman had said that domestic carriers that have already signed up for operations from the NIA—IndiGo and Akasa Air—seemed keen to not just mount domestic flights from the new greenfield airport, but international ones as well.
Schnellmann had said that the NIA was in talks with Air India and other domestic as well as international carriers for flight operations from the airport. The airport’s terminal has been designed as an integrated terminal for domestic as well as international operations, which means that on its part, the airport will be ready for international operations from day one.
The first phase of the NIA—with one runway and one terminal—will have the capacity to handle traffic of 1.2 crore passengers annually. Eventually, after the completion of the fourth phase, the airport will have the capacity to manage 70 million passengers per year.
The airport, a marquee project for the Uttar Pradesh government, is being developed by Yamuna International Airport Pvt Ltd (YIAPL), a fully-owned subsidiary of Zurich Airport International AG. YIAPL is also the operator of the airport over a 40-year concession period that started on October 1, 2021. Schnellmann is the chief executive of YIAPL.
Story continues below this ad
The NIA will connect the greater Delhi area and Western Uttar Pradesh with flights and will serve as the second airport in the NCR besides the IGIA, which is India’s largest airport. Given India’s rapidly rising air traffic, the IGIA is likely to be saturated in a few years. The NIA is expected to complement the IGIA in servicing demand from the region.
The NIA is one of the two under-construction greenfield airports—the other being the Navi Mumbai airport—that will serve as second airports for major metropolitan cities and their adjoining areas.
