Agra Airport

Etymology The airportis named after the eponymous city Agra. The airport has been proposed to be renamed after Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, a renowned independence activist, social reformer and leader. 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. It was closed after the World War II and transferred to the Royal Indian Air Force. The prefix Royal was later dropped and the station was later renamed as the Air Force Station Agra 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. == Runway ==

The airport is served by runway 05/23, which is long and wide and runway 12/30, which is long and wide. The airport has ILS CAT-II compliant for landing during the bad weather and foggy conditions. ==Agra Air Force Station==

The Agra air force station is one of the largest airbases of the Indian Air Force. ==Civil enclave==

Terminal The airport has one operational domestic terminal for the civil aviation and one planned. The current civil terminal has an area of with a capacity of 250 Arrivals and 250 Departures. Future expansion On 12 September 2023, the Uttar Pradesh cabinet cleared a 123 crore (US$15 million) proposal for land acquisition to expand the civil enclave of Agra Airport and upgrade the airport to international category. 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 sqm 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 36 months once all the approvals and funding have been granted. ==See also==