The airport in Diamond City was built by the government in the early 1970s and was operated from a temporary, cement sheet-roofed structure until the early 2000s. Till 2005 the airport was connected to the main road by a kutcha road.
During the monsoon season, travelers had to pass through a flooded road to reach the airport. Not only the road but also the airport used to get submerged in rain water, as a result of which a flight was diverted in 2004. The airport shed had temporary cabins for officers.
Things began to change for good in 2007. The airport was shifted to a new building and the Air Traffic Control (ATC) tower became operational at the same time. Since then, the airport continued to grow. in 2019-2020 airport letterManaged by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), handled 1.58 million domestic and international passengers. At present, Air India, Alliance Air, SpiceJet, indigo, gofirst, star air and Ventura Airconnect are operating flights from the airport.
Surat airport director Aman Saini told TOI that the terminal building under construction is expected to be ready by next year. “At present we have the capacity to accommodate around 500 passengers during peak hours. Once the new terminal building becomes operational, we will be able to handle around 800 passengers.
“The new terminal building will have facilities including in-line baggage scanner, duty free shops, passenger lounge for international passengers, escalators and special facilities for physically challenged passengers,” Saini said. From having only basic facilities a decade and a half ago, the airport currently handles some of the largest jets including the A320, A321, Boeing 737-800. It operates daily flights to Delhi, Goa, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Bhavnagar, Bengaluru, Jaipur, Patna, Bhubaneshwar and Kishangarh.
International flights started operating from Surat in December 2019. In the same year, the airport handled an average of 240 aircraft weekly. With things returning to normalcy after the second wave of Covid-19, the airport operates two international flights per week and 40 domestic flights per day.
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