Domestic airport in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India
Agra Airport or Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay Airport[5] [6][7] (IATA: AGR, ICAO: VIAG), also known as Kheria Airport,[1] is a domestic airport and an Indian Air Force base serving the city of Agra, in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. The air force station is one of the largest airbases of the Indian Air Force. On 15 August 2007, the airbase celebrated its sixtieth anniversary.
History
The station was opened during World War II as Royal Air Forces Station Agra and had a number of flying units located there. It was closed after the war and transferred to the Royal Indian Air Force. The prefix Royal was later dropped and the station was later renamed. Air Force Station Agra was established on 15 August 1947 and placed under the command of Wing Commander Shivdev Singh, who was the incumbent commander of the No. 12 Sqn. Based on the then-present system of Commands, the airfield fell under the responsibility of the Western Air Command (WAC). The base remained under this Theatre Command for the next two decades. In July 1971 it was transferred to the Central Air Command (CAC), where it remains today.
During its sixty-year history with the IAF, it has seen the likes of C-47 Dakotas, C-119 Packets, HS 748 'Avros', AN-12s, AN-32s, IL-76s, Canberras, IL-78 MKI, and now the Airborne Early Warning and Control/AWACS.
The station now has the honor of holding the first inflight refueling aircraft Squadron in IAF service, with No. 78 ‘Mid Air Refuelling Squadron’ (MARS) Squadron flying the IL-78MKIs.
During World War II, the United States Army Air Forces Air Technical Service Command established a major maintenance and supply facility at Agra, named "Agra Air Depot". The 3rd Air Depot Group serviced a wide variety of fighter, bomber and transport aircraft being used by Tenth Air Force and the Allied ground forces in Burma and Fourteenth Air Force in China. The depot stockpiled large amounts of material for shipment over the Himalayan Mountains ("The Hump") by Air Transport Command cargo aircraft flying to forward airfields in China. It also was a major stopover point on the ATC Karachi-Kunming air transport route.[8] The airport is mentioned in a chapter in Ernest Gann's Fate Is the Hunter, wherein he relays a story of coming within feet of destroying the Taj Mahal in a severely overloaded C-87 after takeoff.[9]
Agra Air Force Station
No. 50 Squadron IAF has been tasked with the operations of the newly inducted Beriev A-50E/I Airborne Early Warning and Control (AWACS) aircraft. The AWACS has been mounted on a specially designed IL-76 with advanced avionics & telecommunication systems.
Structure
Runway
The airport is served by runway 05/23, which is 2,743.2 meters (9,000 ft) long and 45 meters (148 ft) wide and runway 12/30, which is 1,817.83 meters (5,964.0 ft) long and 45 meters (148 ft) wide.
Landing amenities
The airport has ILS CAT-II compliant for landing during the bad weather and foggy conditions.[10]
Terminal
The airport has one operational terminal and one planned. The current civil terminal has an area of 4,870 m2 (52,400 sq ft) with a capacity of 250 Arrivals and 250 Departures.[10] Air Force Arjun Nagar Gate is dedicated to passenger Entry up to Airport.
Future expansion
On 12 September 2023, the Uttar Pradesh cabinet cleared a 123 crore (US$15 million) proposal for land acquisition to expand the Agra Airport and upgrade the airport to international category.[11] The proposed expansion plan will involve acquisition of 92.50 acres of land from Abhaypura, Balhera, and Dhanauli. The plan also includes building a 30,000 sq. km. new terminal equipped with nine bays to accommodate nine Airbus A321 aircraft, the extension of the present runways, and other airport facilities. The new terminal is expected to be built in the next 36 months.[12]
