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Veer Savarkar International Airport
Veer Savarkar International Airport
	IATA: IXZ; ICAO: VOPB;
Summary
Airport type	Public/Military
Operator	Airports Authority of India
Serves	Andaman and Nicobar Islands
Location	Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India
Opened	20 January 2005; 19 years ago
Elevation AMSL	4 m / 14 ft
Coordinates	11°38′28″N 092°43′47″E / 11.64111°N 92.72972°E
Map
	IXZ Location of airport in Andaman and Nicobar Islands IXZ IXZ (India)
Runways
Statistics (April 2023 - March 2024)
Passengers
Passengers	1,453,811 ( 14.2%)
Aircraft movements	12,080 ( 10.6%)
Cargo tonnage	6,246 ( 1.8%)
	Source: AAI

Veer Savarkar International Airport (IATA: IXZ, ICAO: VOPB) is an airport located 2 km (1.2 mi) south of Port Blair and the primary airport serving the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India.^[4] Earlier known as Port Blair Airport, it was renamed in 2002 after Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, who had been detained in the Cellular Jail in the city for 11 years during India’s freedom struggle.^[5] It operates as a civil enclave, sharing airside facilities with INS Utkrosh of the Indian Navy.^[6]

Overview

The airport has a single runway of 3,290 m (10,794 ft) in length, accommodating most narrow-body aircraft, that includes Airbus A320, Airbus A321, and Boeing 737. Except for the civilian terminals operated by the Airports Authority of India, all other air traffic operations over Port Blair are undertaken by the Indian Navy.^[7]

Terminals

Old Terminal

Old Terminal had a capacity of 400 passengers. It covers an area of 6,100 square metres.^[8] It had 2 Boarding Gates with no aerobridges. Buses are used to provide transportation from the terminal to the aircraft parked on the apron. At present Old Terminal is not operational. At present All operations were shifted from Old Terminal to New Terminal. The future usage of Old Terminal has not decided.

New Terminal

Due to increasing traffic, a new 40,837 sq.m. passenger terminal at a cost of ₹ 707 crore began construction in 2019. It has three floors–one for arrivals, second for departures and third for waiting. Inside the terminal, there are 28 check-in counters, four conveyor belts and three aerobridges. It will be able to handle 1,200 passengers (600 domestic and 600 international) at peak hours, and will be able to serve 5 million passengers per annum.^[9] It was completed in June 2023 and was inaugurated on 18 July 2023.^[10]^[11]

Function: Airport
Architect: Vector Designs, Pune
Material: Steel, Glass, Membrane
Client: Airport Authority of India
Salient Features:
- Inspired by sea shells, the roof form and structure depicts the best of it.
- Spanning across 240x90m, it is by the largest clear span enclosure among airports in India and one of the few of world’s international airport buildings.
- 22 sculpted steel 3 D trusses each having different span resting on 2 elliptical beams and one grand central Arc. Peripheral elliptical edge beams are resting on V columns. Intricacy of Sculpted expressions of engineered end connections of trusses and V columns is achieved by machined steel casting process. The entire building envelope has 6500 tons of steel manufactured inland at various cities and carried to portblair assembled by 400 ton cranes. Commissioning and decommissioning of cranes at Remote Island was a project by itself.
- On the airside and city side there are grand entry canopies which greet the visitor passing through.
- 20 clear strip skylights located right above space trusses gives pleasant daylight thus not only saving day time lighting energy but gives uniform lux lighting across the interior space and hi lights meticulously detailed space truss detailing and geometry.
- Roof has delicate mesh overhang extensions receding façade. This prevents any direct sunlight exposure on the glass facade during harsh sunlight durations to minimise heat gain through glass façade. Choice of glasses have better shading coefficient to further reduce heat gain.
- Entire building facade is enveloped in bi-directionally curved pre-stressed cable net. 4300 differently sized glass panes form this complex glass surface, designed to withstand super cyclones in the sea yet having delicate looking strong cable net. 24.5 Km of Cables are of stainless steel grade, having special cast junctions holding glass panes at corners only.

Airlines and destinations

Airlines	Destinations	Refs.
AirAsia	Kuala Lumpur–International	^[12]
Air India	Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, Visakhapatnam
Air India Express	Bengaluru, Chennai (begins 1 January 2025), Kolkata^[13]
Akasa Air	Chennai, Kolkata	^[14]
IndiGo	Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata
SpiceJet	Chennai, Kolkata	^[15]