Silchar Airport is a

domestic airport A domestic airport is an airport that handles only flights within the same country. Domestic airports do not have customs and immigration facilities and so cannot handle flights to or from a foreign airport. These airports often have short r ...

serving city of

Silchar Silchar is a city and the headquarters of the Cachar district of the state of Assam, India. It is second largest city of Assam after Guwahati in terms of population and GDP. It is also administrative capital of Barak Valley division. It is locate ...

Assam Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. It is located at Kumbhirgram, on the foothills of the

Barail Range The Barail Range is a tertiary mountain range in Northeast India with an area of approximately 80,000 ha between Brahmaputra and Barak basins stretching from Nagaland & Manipur to the east and Assam & Meghalaya Meghalaya (; "the abode of ...

, 29 km (18 mi) from the city centre. It was built by the British as RAF Station Kumbhirgram in 1944 and transferred to the

Royal Indian Air Force The Royal Indian Air Force (RIAF) was the aerial force of British Raj, British India and later the Dominion of India. Along with the British Indian Army, and the Royal Indian Navy, it was one of the Armed Forces of British Indian Empire. The ...

(RIAF). It is also a

civil enclave A joint-use airport is an aerodrome that is used for both military aviation and civil aviation. They typically contain facilities of both a civil airport and a military air base. By country India Visakhapatnam Airport operates as a civil enclav ...

airport as it is under the control of

Indian Air Force The Indian Air Force (IAF) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the air force, air arm of the Indian Armed Forces. Its primary mission is to secure Indian airspace and to conduct aerial warfare during armed conflicts. It was officially established on 8 Octob ...

. It is the fourth-busiest airport of

north-east India Northeast India, officially the North Eastern Region (NER), is the easternmost region of India representing both a geographic and political administrative division of the country. It comprises eight states—Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, M ...

next to

Guwahati Guwahati () the largest city of the Indian state of Assam, and also the largest metropolis in northeastern India. Dispur, the capital of Assam, is in the circuit city region located within Guwahati and is the seat of the Government of Assam. Th ...

Agartala Agartala (, , ) is the capital and the List of cities and towns in Tripura, largest city of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Tripura, situated on the banks of Haora River, Haora/Saidra River, about east of the border ...

and

Imphal Imphal (; , ) is the capital city of the Indian state of Manipur. The metropolitan centre of the city contains the ruins of Kangla Palace (officially known as Kangla Fort), the royal seat of the former Kingdom of Manipur, surrounded by a ...

. Passenger traffic in the airport showed a sharp growth of 72.9% in 2017-18, and handled 366,955 passengers. While in 2018-19, the traffic growth was reported 5.4% to 386,665. As of 2023-24 data available with the

Airports Authority of India The Airports Authority of India (AAI) is a statutory body under the ownership of the Ministry of Civil Aviation (India), Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India. It is responsible for creating, upgrading, maintaining, and managing civi ...

, the airport handled over 412,600 passengers, and is the 45th- busiest airport in India and the 47th-busiest in respect of aircraft movement. The airport is the 46th busiest in cargo transportation, as of 2023-24.

Infrastructure

The airport's terminal handles domestic flights. It has a runway capable of handling aircraft such as the

Boeing 737 The Boeing 737 is an American narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Boeing Renton Factory, Renton factory in Washington (state), Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the t ...

and the

Airbus A320 The Airbus A320 family is a series of narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus. The A320 was launched in March 1984, Maiden flight, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air France. The first membe ...

. Amenities include a restaurant,

handicraft A handicraft is a traditional main sector of craft making and applies to a wide range of creative and design activities that are related to making things with one's hands and skill, including work with textiles, moldable and rigid material ...

s shop, ATMs, chocolates shop, and free

WiFi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for Wireless LAN, local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by ...

. The runway is equipped with a

precision approach path indicator A precision approach path indicator (PAPI) is a system of Electric light, lights on the side of an airport runway threshold that provides visual descent (aircraft), descent guidance information during final approach. It is generally located on ...

(PAPI) visual aid for both sides of the runway, that enables pilots to maintain the correct approach (in the vertical plane) towards the airport. The instrument landing system (ILS) provides a direction for approaching when the aircraft tunes its receiver to the ILS frequency, it provides both lateral and vertical signals. A glide slope station which is an antenna array sited to one side of the runway touchdown zone is also available towards the runway.

Facilities

Silchar Airport is situated at an elevation of 338 feet above sea level. It covers an area of 36.70 acres. There is only one domestic terminal. It has four check-in counters along with four boarding gate to handle nearly 300 passengers at a given time, with 150 each at the arrival and the departure section. Restrooms are available for transit passengers with charges applied as per AAI rules. There are two conveyor belts available in the arrival building to support multiple aircraft at a time.

Indian Oil Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL or IOC), trading as IndianOil, is an Indian multinational oil and gas company under the ownership of the Government of India and administrative control of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. It i ...

handles the

aviation fuel Aviation fuels are either petroleum-based or blends of petroleum and synthetic fuels, used to power aircraft. They have more stringent requirements than fuels used for ground applications, such as heating and road transport, and they contain add ...

service department of Silchar Airport. There are a variety of options for eating and shopping on the airport premises. Shops selling local handicraft items are also there. The airport comes under the administrative control of the Airports Authority of India. The guidelines prescribed by the Airports Authority of India are adhered to while carrying out the daily operations of Silchar Airport.

Airlines and destinations

Statistics

Transport

The Assam State Transport Corporation (ASTC) operates the

Volvo The Volvo Group (; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distribution and sale of truck ...

air-conditioned Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C (US) or air con (UK), is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior temperature, and in some cases, also controlling the humidity of internal air. Air c ...

bus services to Silchar airport from Rangirkhari Point and the Inter-State Bus Terminus (ISBT). From the ISBT one can find buses to other cities of the north-eastern region. Taxis are also available to and from the airport to Hailakandi and Karimganj.

References

External links

{{Indian Air Force Silchar Airports in Assam Transport in Silchar Military airbases established in 1944 1944 establishments in India Royal Air Force stations of World War II in Asia