Noida International Airport Begins Commercial Operations

On June 15, 2026, the Noida International Airport at Jewar in Uttar Pradesh began commercial operations, ushering the National Capital Region into the era of two major airports. The first commercial flight was operated by IndiGo, which flew in from Lucknow early in the morning and then took off for Bengaluru, marking the first commercial departure from the new airport.

The airport was designed and built by an arm of a Swiss airport operator and opened after a delay of nearly two years. Its launch comes at a difficult moment for the aviation sector, with the West Asia crisis forcing airlines to trim schedules and pause expansion. The airport's management called this a short-term challenge and said it remained confident about the long-term growth of India's aviation market, which has rebounded strongly in the past.

Operations are starting small and will scale up. The airport plans about 12 daily domestic flights in June, rising to more than 40 in July. IndiGo is beginning with eight daily flights linking the airport to cities such as Hyderabad, Amritsar, Bengaluru, and Jammu, while Akasa Air starts its flights from June 16 connecting to Bengaluru and Navi Mumbai. International flights are expected to begin by the end of the year, first on short routes to West Asia and Southeast Asia.

Noida International Airport is the second secondary airport to open in India within months. In December 2025, the Navi Mumbai International Airport began operations, making Mumbai the first Indian megacity served by two major airports. Both new airports will at first operate in the shadow of the larger primary airports of their regions.

There is a key difference between the two. Mumbai's main airport is already saturated because of space limits, so airlines wanting to grow there must shift to Navi Mumbai, giving it almost ready demand. Delhi's main airport, by contrast, still has room to handle more passengers and flights, so the Noida airport may grow more slowly at first. Over the long run, however, the Jewar airport is expected to strengthen Delhi NCR's position as India's leading aviation hub.