Departure
96%
vs 95% ▲ 1
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport (VILK/LKO) serves Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh, from a site at Amausi some 14 km south-west of the city centre. It is a major commercial hub for northern India, equipped with a single long runway and a CAT IIIB instrument landing system, making it of interest to sim pilots as a busy international field with sophisticated low-visibility approach capability.
Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport, commonly known as Lucknow Airport, is the principal international gateway for Lucknow and the wider Uttar Pradesh region. Named after the fifth Prime Minister of India, it is operated by Lucknow International Airport Limited, an Adani Group-led public-private partnership, under a 50-year concession from the Airports Authority of India. For the simulator pilot it offers a single, very long runway served by a Category IIIB instrument landing system, along with the operational character of a growing international hub handling wide-body traffic alongside high-frequency domestic services.
The airport lies at Amausi, about 14 km from Lucknow city centre, in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Coordinates place the field at approximately 26.762N, 80.883E, with the terminal complex and CCSIA metro station situated close to National Highway 27, which links Lucknow with Kanpur.
The airport has one physical runway, aligned 09/27, on a hard surface with lighting on both directions. Runway 09 is listed at 8471 ft and Runway 27 at 8986 ft; the discrepancy in published lengths reflects displaced or differing threshold points along the same strip. Runway 27 is equipped with an instrument landing system, giving Category IIIB low-visibility capability at that threshold, a facility shared by only a handful of Indian airports.
Radio services include Approach on 120.45 MHz, Ground on 120.45 MHz, Tower on 118.6 MHz, and an ATIS broadcast on 126.8 MHz. The field's ILS CAT IIIB, serving the eastern (27) threshold, allows landings in visibility as low as 50 metres, comparable to the capability found at Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata, Jaipur and Amritsar.
The airport was constructed in 1986 primarily to serve corporate and government flights, with a terminal designed to complement the architecture of Lucknow's Charbagh railway station. As traffic grew, the Airports Authority of India began upgrading the field from 1996. On 17 July 2008 the Government of India renamed it Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport in honour of the former Prime Minister. A second terminal opened in 2012, and the airport was granted international status on 19 May 2012. In February 2019 Adani Enterprises, through Lucknow International Airport Limited, won the concession to operate, manage and develop the airport under a public-private partnership, taking over management with effect from 2 November 2020. A third terminal, built to accommodate rising international and domestic demand, was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 10 March 2024.
Lucknow Airport now operates three terminals, with Terminal 3 handling the bulk of modern passenger traffic and designed with capacity for over 13 million passengers a year. The runway has been subject to revamp works, including new ground lighting, additional link taxiways and an extended runway end safety area, to accommodate larger aircraft such as the Airbus A350 and Boeing 787. As a major scheduled international airport, prior permission would be required for any general aviation or unscheduled movement.