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Shirdi airport terminal building area to be doubled in 6 months
According to Gupta, the passenger handling capacity of the Shirdi airport per hour during the peak time of the day is currently 350, which will be doubled after the expansion of the terminal building
To accommodate increasing passenger traffic at the Shirdi airport, the size of the terminal building will be expanded to 5,500 square metres from the existing 2,700 square metres in six months.
CS Gupta, executive director, Maharashtra Airport Development Company Limited (MADC), said, “Considering the increasing passenger traffic at Shirdi airport, the current space at the terminal building was less. Hence, it was decided to increase the terminal size, the work for which has already commenced and will get over in six months.”
According to Gupta, the passenger handling capacity of the Shirdi airport per hour during the peak time of the day is currently 350, which will be doubled after the expansion of the terminal building.
“The number of parking bays will increase to ten which is currently four and the work for the same has also begun,” he said.
The Maharashtra Airport Development Company Limited has completed the work of runway extension at the Shirdi airport.
Gupta said, “The work of runway extension has been completed. The extended runway will enable the services of the wide-bodied aircraft like the Airbus 377, thus, increasing the footfall.”
The increased length of the runway is 3,200 metres. Until now the length of the runway was 2,500 metres which made it capable of handling only single narrow-body aircraft, such as Airbus A320 and Boeing 737s.
Ever since the Shirdi airport became operational on October 1, 2017, it has successfully operated over 1,500 flights.
“Shirdi airport has a passenger occupancy of nearly 80 per cent within less than two years of operations and is a success story in itself,” said Gupta.
