Synopsis: Visakhapatnam and Ludhiana are shutting their old facilities as air traffic shifts to newly built replacement airports, while six regional airports in Uttar Pradesh and Sikkim’s Pakyong Airport have had zero scheduled commercial flights for months to years, with no revival plan in sight.
Knowing about the airport closure is important while planning the next flight towards the destination. Some airports are shutting their doors because of better-connected replacement, while others have simply run out of airlines willing to fly there. Here’s a look at the airports that have either permanently ceased operations or gone indefinitely non-operational, and what that means for travelers in these regions.
5 Airports which are closing down and their alternatives
1. Visakhapatnam International Airport (VTZ)
- Reason: Visakhapatnam Airport is a civil enclave within the INS Dega, a Navy airbase, and has struggled for years to secure civil flight slots against naval training schedules, hence all civilian flights are moving to the new Alluri Sitarama Raju International Airport at Bhogapuram, around 50 km from the city.
- Dates: The recent updates of Bhogapuram Airport is that commercial operations are likely to be commenced around the last week of July 2026. After that, commercial flights of the old airport Vizag are likely to cease.
- Features & Status: This greenfield Bhogapuram is an approximately ₹5,000 crore project from GMR with around 6.3 million passengers in Phase-I, will be operational round the clock with zero military slot limitations.
2. Ludhiana Sahnewal Airport
- Reason: Sahnewal airport in Ludhiana due to becoming too cramped by the town spread, couldn’t expand for a longer runway or larger terminal. So, the Punjab government, in association with AAI, has been constructing a completely new airport, Halwara International Airport, within the perimeter of the Halwara Air Force Station, about 32 km away from the Ludhiana town.
- Dates: Halwara was inaugurated on February 1, 2026, and Air India began twice-daily Delhi to Halwara commercial flights on May 15, 2026.
- Features & Status: Halwara is Punjab’s third international airport after Amritsar and Chandigarh, built to handle Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 aircraft which Sahnewal’s cramped single runway was never designed for.
3. Six Uttar Pradesh Regional Airports (Kushinagar, Chitrakoot, Azamgarh, Aligarh, Moradabad, Shravasti)
- Reason: An RTI response from the Airports Authority of India revealed that six of the seven airports launched in UP since 2021 have suspended commercial services entirely, largely due to poor passenger demand and weak route viability once initial subsidies or promotional fares ended. Only Ayodhya Airport remains functional.
- Dates: Kushinagar suspended services in late 2023, the others followed within months of their respective launches. As of recent updates, there is no revival plan or restart date has been announced for any of the six.
- Features & Status: The infrastructure and terminals still exist, but with zero scheduled flights and no airline showing interest in resuming service, they function as dormant airports for now.
4. Pakyong Airport, Sikkim
- Reason: Sikkim’s only airport was always a Visual Flight Rules facility, making it highly vulnerable to fog, wind, and poor visibility in the Himalayan terrain. Repeated weather-related diversions and cancellations eroded airline confidence over several years.
- Duration & Closure Date: Flights have been suspended since June 2024. According to various sources, the Ministry of Civil Aviation confirmed that no airline currently holds or has requested flight slots at Pakyong, and no restart timeline exists.
- Features & Status: Pakyong previously connected Sikkim to Delhi, Kolkata, and Guwahati via SpiceJet using Dash-8 Q400 aircraft. Aviation commentators have argued that reviving it will require better landing technology with RNP-AR/GLS systems rather than smaller aircraft, if it’s ever to become reliably operational again.
Key Details at a Glance
All in all
Two clear patterns emerge here, the Visakhapatnam and Ludhiana are closing because something better has been built to replace them, while the UP six and Pakyong have simply been abandoned by airlines due to poor economics and, in Pakyong’s case, weather.
