To be sure, currently, this Hindon airport is spread over about 22,050 square metre area (2 hectares).

The airport, which is using the runway of the Indian Air Force base at Hindon, is operating at optimum capacity in terms of number of flights and passengers’ footfall, and further expansion is required, they said.

“We have about 25 cities connected to 50 flights and have a daily footfall of over 5,000 passengers. An expansion plan is being discussed at the highest level in AAI. For now, we have asked the district officials to provide nine hectares of land for expanding the airport to cater to rising demand,” said the civil airport’s director, Umesh Yadav.

The terminal, which began operations in October 2019, serves passengers from Ghaziabad, Gautam Budh Nagar, Delhi, and other parts of western Uttar Pradesh. It offers connectivity to cities including Kolkata, Chennai, Goa, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Jammu, Varanasi, Patna, Ahmedabad, Indore, Adampur, Nanded, Kishangarh, Ludhiana, and Bathinda.

Officials aware of the development said that currently they have only two parking bays for incoming and outgoing aircraft, and in case of any delays, the effect is witnessed on other incoming and outgoing flights.

Ghaziabad MP and also chairperson of the airport advisory committee Atul Garg said that the expansion plan also has provision for providing a greater number of parking bays. He said earlier, he had also requested AAI officials to reduce some flights to avoid hampering operations.

“For the expansion plan, nine hectares of land from Sikandarpur village will be procured. Initially, we will try to purchase land directly from farmers. Later, if they deny, then we can go in for land acquisition,” said Garg.

The airport currently caters to 80-seater, 20-seater and even 186-seater aircraft to various destinations, said officials.