New Delhi/Noida: Authorities on Monday conducted the first successful validation test flight for the upcoming Noida International Airport in the Jewar area of Gautam Buddh Nagar district in Uttar Pradesh. Airport officials said that the runway trial is being organized after the green signal from the DGCA. The trial will run till December 15 while commercial flights will begin from April 17, 2025.
The greenfield airport is around 75 km off Delhi and will be the national capital region's second international airport. It is being built by Yamuna International Airport Private Limited, a fully owned subsidiary of Swiss firm Zurich International Airport AG for the Uttar Pradesh government in a public-private partnership model.
What is a validation flight?
A validation flight is conducted to verify whether an airport meets safety, operational, and regulatory standards.
Union Minister for Civil Aviation Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu, who was present at the validation flight of the Noida airport, said, "With the validation flight happening today, we are committed to finishing the airport project before the end of April."
"Today marks a very important occasion in the progress of the airport and definitely whatever support is required from the Ministry of Civil Aviation we will continuously provide so that the early operations from the airport can begin," he said.
Naidu said that this project has so far had 50 million man-hours “and not a single incident has happened”. "I don't think any other project in the country of such scale can boast of that record so I congratulate the whole team who has made this possible," the minister said.
Naidu said the country is witnessing exceptional success in the civil aviation industry because of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In the last 10 years, the number of airports in the country has almost doubled, he added.
Noida International Airport CEO Christoph Schnellmann said the successful completion of validation flights reflects the dedication and meticulous planning that has gone into ensuring the airport is ready for commercial operations.
"We are gearing up for the airport's opening and look forward to welcoming passengers to the airport," he added.
The validation flight is being conducted on an Airbus A-320 to test the RNP (Required Navigation Performance) procedures and ILS (instrument landing system) approach procedures. RNP is a set of navigation specifications that allow aircraft to fly precise flight paths with high accuracy.
The airport which boasts of Instrument Landing System (ILS) will have sixty domestic flights from April. Contracts have been signed with Indigo and Akasa for domestic flights to and fro major cities like Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Varanasi, Chennai, Jaipur, Hyderabad and Mumbai. The airport will also run cargo services along with international flights to Zurich, Singapore and Dubai. (With inputs from agencies)
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