Departure
96%
vs 95% ▲ 1
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Devi Ahilya Bai Holkar Airport (VAID) serves Indore, the financial capital of Madhya Pradesh, from a site at Bijasen Tekri some 8 km west of the city. It is a busy single-runway hub equipped with a Cat-I ILS, DVOR/DME and NDB, and is also home to the Madhya Pradesh Flying Club, making it a lively field for both airline and training traffic.
Devi Ahilya Bai Holkar Airport lies at Bijasen Tekri, about 8 km west of Indore in Madhya Pradesh, and is operated by the Airports Authority of India. It is the busiest airport in Central India, acting as a hub for IndiGo and a focus city for Air India Express, and it also hosts the Madhya Pradesh Flying Club at the southern end of the runway, giving the field a mix of scheduled jet traffic and light training movements that make it a notable destination for the simulator pilot.
The airport sits within Indore's controlled airspace, serving the city and its wider metropolitan region in western India. It is located 8 km west of Indore proper, close to the Bijasen area, and its strategic central position makes it a conduit for flights between India's western, southern and northern regions; it also provides access to the nearby pilgrimage centres of Ujjain and Omkareshwar.
The airport has a single physical runway, 07/25, measuring 9021 feet with a hard surface and runway lighting. An instrument landing system serves runway 25.
Air traffic services are provided as Indore Approach on 122.3 MHz and Indore Tower on 122.8 MHz. The field is equipped with a Category I ILS on runway 25, along with DVOR/DME and an NDB for navigation, and night landing facilities allow day and night operations.
The site adjacent to Bijasen was chosen for an airport in 1935 on the recommendation of Nevill Vintcent of Tata and Sons' Aviation Department, during the rule of Maharaja Yashwant Rao Holkar II of the Indore State administration. The first air services, linking Indore with Gwalior, Delhi and Mumbai, began in July 1948, and the airport was handed over to the Government of India in April 1950 under the Central Financial Integration Scheme. A new runway of 5,600 feet was completed by March 1966 at a cost of 15 lakh rupees to accommodate the larger aircraft of the era. A modern terminal building was inaugurated on 14 February 2012, and in 2018 the field was designated an international airport, becoming the first in Madhya Pradesh to hold that status; international services formally began on 29 May 2019. The airport is named after Rajmata Ahilyabai Holkar, the second ruler of the Holkar dynasty.
The airport today handles around 96 flights a day and combines airline operations with general aviation training through the Madhya Pradesh Flying Club, based at the south end of the runway with apron space for four Cessna 172s. The main apron accommodates a mix of narrowbody jets and ATR turboprops, and a parallel taxiway and additional parking bays were added under an expansion completed in March 2021. A new air traffic control tower and technical block was inaugurated in December 2024, and the field is equipped with night landing facilities, a Category I ILS on runway 25, DVOR/DME and an NDB, supporting continuous day and night operations.