The passenger air traffic in Uttar Pradesh has grown in the year 2016-17 by 30% to 6.1 million1 passengers on a year on year basis whereas air cargo has witnessed a negative growth from 5.91MMT (million metric tons) during year 2015-16 to 5.89 MMT during 2016-17. According to Census of India 2011, the approximate population of Uttar Pradesh is 199.8 million and the corresponding per capita air trips would be an approximate 0.031 reflecting the immense untapped potential in air transport sector in the state.
In Uttar Pradesh the following six airports are providing intra-state and inter-state air connectivity Lucknow, Varanasi, Allahabad, Gorakhpur, Agra and Kanpur. Lucknow airport serving 65% of the passenger air traffic demand in Uttar Pradesh followed by Varanasi 32%, Allahabad 2.4% , Gorakhpur 0.9%, Agra 0.2% and Kanpur 0.1% in 2016-17.
The following graphs reflect the air transport growth in U.P. in passenger traffic.
Air Passenger Traffic at airports in U.P.
International Air Traffic in Uttar Pradesh
There are 18 divisional headquarters and 75 districts in U.P. The existing status of airports/air connectivity to 18 Divisional headquarters in Uttar Pradesh is as follows:
Airports at Lucknow, Varanasi, Gorakhpur are fully functional airports
Bareilly has an air force station where civil enclave is being developed by AAI Through an MOU with AAI, airstrips at Meerut, Moradabad, and Faizabad have been handed over to AAI for upgradation.
Jhansi, Chitrakoot, Azamgarh, Aligarh are having state owned airstrips at Divisional level which can be developed as No-Frills Airports
Divisions of Sonebhadra (Mirzapur) and Shravasti (Gonda/Devipatan) have airstrips at a place other than Divisional headquarters, which need to be upgraded to No-Frills Airports
Saharanpur division has a defence airport, which can be developed as No-Frills Airports
Basti division–does not have any airport related facility.