Porbandar Airport is a public airport in Porbandar,

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. Currently, civilian flights are not operational. Apart from civilian operations it also has a military presence in the form of INAS 343 of the

Indian Navy The Indian Navy is the maritime branch of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Navy. The Chief of Naval Staff, a four-star admiral, commands the navy. As a blue-water navy, it operates si ...

and CGAE Porbandar of the

Indian Coast Guard The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) is a maritime law enforcement and search and rescue agency of India with jurisdiction over its territorial waters including its contiguous zone and exclusive economic zone. The Indian Coast Guard was formally es ...

. A new terminal building was opened in April 2008.New Terminal Building at Porbandar Airport
''Press Information Bureau, Government of India'' There are currently no scheduled passenger flights from the airport.

Structure

The airfield is spread over , has a long runway and an apron that can accommodate 2

ATR 72 The ATR 72 is a twin-engine turboprop, short-haul regional airliner developed and produced in France and Italy by aircraft manufacturer ATR (french: Avions de transport régional or it, Aerei da Trasporto Regionale), a joint venture formed ...

aircraft. The new Terminal Building at Porbandar Airport has been built at a cost of . The building has six Check-in Counters and two Conveyor Belts in the Arrivals hall and can handle 100 arriving and 100 departing passengers at a time.

Military Enclaves

Naval Air Enclave

* INAS 343, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Squadron, was commissioned at the Naval Air Enclave, Porbandar in January 2011. This is the first Operational UAV Squadron under the

Western Naval Command The Western Naval Command is one of the three command–level formations of the Indian Navy. It is headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. As the senior–most of the three formations, the command is responsible for the all naval forces in the A ...

. Nicknamed ‘Frontier Formidables’, the Squadron operates IAI Heron and IAI Searcher MkII

UAV An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), which includes adding a ground-based controlle ...

s and has the dual tasks of undertaking operational missions besides providing training. * INAS 314 "Raptors" a new EW squadron was established on 29 November 2019. This squadron is responsible to undertake

maritime surveillance {{Unreferenced, date=March 2008 Maritime patrol is the task of monitoring areas of water. Generally conducted by military and law enforcement agencies, maritime patrol is usually aimed at identifying human activities. Maritime patrol refers to ac ...

in North Arabian Sea.

Dornier 228 The Dornier 228 is a twin-turboprop STOL utility aircraft, designed and first manufactured by Dornier GmbH (later DASA Dornier, Fairchild-Dornier) from 1981 until 1998. Two hundred and forty-five were built in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany. In 19 ...

is currently operated by this squadron.

CGAE Porbandar

Coast Guard Air Enclave, Porbandar, was commissioned on 12 June 2008. It provides logistical and administrative support to the Dornier Flight and 850 Sqn (ICG) which operates the

Advanced Light Helicopter The HAL Dhruv is a utility helicopter designed and developed by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in November 1984. The helicopter first flew in 1992; however, its development was prolonged due to multiple factors including the Indian Army's ...

(ALH).Indian Coast Guard Aviation
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References

External links