Departure
94%
vs 95% ▼ 1
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Begumpet Airport, on the northern edge of Hyderabad in Telangana, is a historic airfield that served as the city's main civil airport for more than seventy years before Rajiv Gandhi International Airport took over scheduled traffic in 2008. It remains active today for flight training, general aviation and military use, and its single hard-surfaced runway with an ILS approach still offers a straightforward and characterful destination for a VFR pilot exploring the region.
Begumpet Airport is a military and public aerodrome serving Hyderabad, operated jointly with the Indian Air Force, whose Begumpet Air Force Station is based on the field. Built by the Princely State of Hyderabad in the 1930s, it was the city's principal commercial airport for decades before losing scheduled services to the new Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Shamshabad in 2008. For a simulator pilot it is an interesting mix of old-world aviation heritage and present-day general aviation and training activity, with a long single runway and an ILS approach.
The airfield lies at Begumpet, within the city of Hyderabad, Telangana, at coordinates 17.4533N, 78.4625E and an elevation of 1729 feet. It sits well within the built-up area of Hyderabad, in contrast to the newer Rajiv Gandhi International Airport some 30 kilometres away at Shamshabad, which now handles the city's scheduled traffic.
Begumpet has a single physical runway, 09/27, hard-surfaced and lit. Runway 09 is 8424 feet long, while runway 27 is 7573 feet long and is equipped with an ILS, providing an instrument approach from that direction.
Radio services at Begumpet include ACC on 129.7 MHz, APP on 132.4 MHz, ATIS on 126.8 MHz, RDO on 287.2 MHz and TWR on 122.25 MHz. Runway 27 is served by an ILS approach.
The airport originated in the mid-1930s when Mir Osman Ali Khan, the last Nizam of Hyderabad, decided to establish an aerodrome at Begumpet on what was then the outskirts of the city. The Hyderabad State Aero Club was inaugurated there in June 1936, and Princess Durrushehvar laid the foundation stone for a terminal building shortly afterwards. Tata's Karachi to Madras service began routing through Begumpet from 1937, and the Nizam's State Railways Air Department added a Madras to Bangalore service via Hyderabad the following year, though this ceased with the outbreak of the Second World War. During the war the state government handed control of the airport to the Directorate of Civil Aviation, and the Royal Air Force established a flying school there in 1942. Deccan Airways flew its maiden service from Begumpet to Bangalore in May 1946 and operated India's first Hajj flight from the airport later that year. Commercial airlines moved fully to Begumpet in May 1950, and the runway was upgraded in 1965 to handle Caravelle jets. A new terminal opened in 1972, and by 1975 the airport was handling 250,000 passengers a year; international services to Sharjah and Kuwait followed in the 1990s. Rising traffic and the lack of room to expand within the now-surrounded urban site led the Andhra Pradesh government to choose a new site at Shamshabad for Hyderabad's next airport, with a 2004 agreement requiring Begumpet's commercial operations to end once the new airport opened. Passenger numbers continued to climb in the airport's final years, including a 44 percent rise between April 2006 and March 2007, and Lufthansa began nonstop Hyderabad to Frankfurt flights in 2005. The last passenger departure from Begumpet was a Thai Airways flight to Bangkok in the early hours of 23 March 2008, the same day Rajiv Gandhi International Airport opened; at the time Begumpet was the sixth busiest airport in India, served by ten Indian and thirteen foreign airlines.
Since the end of scheduled passenger services in 2008, Begumpet has continued in use for flight training and houses an Indian Air Force station. It is also used by businesspeople, politicians and other private aircraft operators flying into the city. The airfield hosts Wings India, India's first civilian air show, a biennial event organised by the Ministry of Civil Aviation together with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the Airports Authority of India, first held there in October 2008.