Terminal 1 The original terminal, built in 1986 to cater government and private officials and flights, has been designed to complement the architecture of
Lucknow Charbagh railway station. It has two arrival and three departing gates as well as two immigration counters. The terminal was expanded in 1996. It is currently used for only international flights after the opening of Terminal 2 in 2012. It has only basic facilities available to cater to the needs of passengers. It will be demolished in the second phase of the airport expansion project to link Terminals 2 and 3.
Terminal 2 Terminal 2 had been built to become the international terminal and serve the growing traffic and demands. However, considering the large domestic travel demand, it was later decided to be used only for domestic flights. Renowned for its design, the terminal's elevation to the sky resembles the folded wings of a paper plane. Large wing-like cantilevers on either side of the -long roof depict vibrancy and swiftness. The building itself appears as a dynamic object preparing to take flight. Inside, the gently curving ceiling gives the feeling of being under the belly of a giant aircraft. The design of the building does not labour to represent the culture and heritage of the city, instead gets imprinted with the architects' own experiences of nightmares about an aircraft crashing down through the roof, the exhilaration of flight, lightness, the indented front of the city as it wraps around the
Gomti River and the ruins of the British Residency after the
mutiny of 1857. Frosted etchings on the glass façade of the building bear the intricate patterns of
Chikankari, the famous embroidery work of Lucknow. The terminal was inaugurated by then
Minister of Civil Aviation,
Ajit Singh, on 19 May 2012, before opening on 2 June 2012. Covering an area of , the terminal can handle 1,200 passengers per hour and around 4 million passengers per year. The terminal was being used more than its capacity which led the Lucknow International Airport Limited (LIAL), the owner of the airport headed by
Adani Group, increasing the passenger handling capacity per hour by 200 passengers. The terminal was refurbished by the Adani Group in 2022 after their takeover in 2020, as per its plan to refurbish terminals of airports taken over from the
Airports Authority of India (AAI). After the commissioning of Terminal 3, the pressure on Terminal 2 has been significantly relieved. It is also likely that the Terminal 2 will be converted into an administrative building for airport operations.
Terminal 3 In 2018,
Suresh Prabhu, the then
Minister of Civil Aviation, announced that a new third passenger terminal building will be constructed with an area of , including a basement area of and a connecting corridor between Terminals 2 and 3, which will cover an area of . To be built in two phases, the first phase will be able to serve more than 13 million passengers annually. It has been built at a cost of , which is now estimated at . The Peak-Hour Handling (PHP) capacity of the new terminal is 4,000 passengers, of which 3,200 is domestic and 800 international. There are a total of 75 check-in counters, of which 60 are for domestic and 15 for international passengers, and 18 check-in kiosks for passengers travelling through the terminal. It is equipped with six
aerobridges, which will be increased to eight after the completion of the second phase, through which the passengers can board directly to the flight from their respective boarding gates. It is a multi-storeyed terminal building with departures at the first floor and arrivals at the ground floor. The terminal's architecture will endeavour to express the position of Lucknow as a key city and will display the traditional culture and heritage of
Uttar Pradesh. The building is also provided with interior decorations to match the modern structure and enhance passenger experience. Along with the terminal, a multi-storey parking facility is also under construction, which will have a parking of 1,500 vehicles. Also, over of storm water drains have been constructed parallel to the runway on either side to facilitate the outflow of the water into the Bijnor Canal. Terminal 3 was inaugurated and opened by
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 10 March 2024.
Cargo terminal It was opened in March 2022. The facility has increased the cargo handling capacity of the airport by 40 per cent to 7000 tonnes per year. The airport has also increased to over 1000 tones per month by the end of FY 2022–2023. At present,
e-commerce, courier, post office mails, general cargo, valuables,
mobile phones, and perishables are exported as well as imported at the airport. The airport is also in talks with various multi-national companies to use the airport as a regional distribution hub. A new integrated cargo terminal with a capacity of 30,000 tonnes is planned at the airport by the administration. ==Airlines and destinations==