Adampur Airport, Jalandhar is located at Adampur Town of Jalandhar district in Northern India, It is situated on Jalandhar-Hoshiarpur main Highway and 23 kilometers northeast of Jalandhar, Punjab. Adampur Airforce Station is also situated here. It is the second largest military airbase of India. It lies within 100 km of Indo-Pak Border and home to No. 47 Squadron IAF and No. 223 Squadron IAF.
History
Adampur Air Force Station, Jalandhar is very old base station. The base played a crucial role in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965. On 6 September 1965, the PAF attacked Indian airfields at Pathankot AFS, Halwara AFS & Adampur AFS, Jalandhar. The attacks on Halwara and Adampur were failures. The Strike group turned back before even reaching Adampur. On 7 September 1965, the PAF parachuted 135 Special Services Group para commandos at three Indian airfields. The daring attempt proved to be an "unmitigated disaster". Only ten commandos were able to return to Pakistan, the rest were taken as prisoners of war. At Adampur these troops landed in residential areas where the villagers caught and handed them over to police. The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 on western front started with Operation Chengiz Khan on 3 December 1971. Pathankot Air Force Station was hit and runway heavily damaged. Pathankot was covered by interceptors from Adampur AFS, Jalandhar following this first strike during the time it took the ground crew to repair its runway. During 1999 Kargil Conflict flying from Adampur AFS, Jalandhar, Mirages of No. 7 Squadron IAF struck Tigerhill, Muntho Dhalo and Tololing.
Aircraft
Adampur Air base operates MiG-29UPG variant after recently completed overhauls to the older B/UB fleet.
Civil Enclave
The Airports Authority of India has built a Adampur Airport, Jalandhar at a cost of Rs 18 crore at Kandola village of Jalandhar district adjoining the airbase to facilitate commercial civil aviation. The Central government had cleared the techno-feasibility report for setting up the Adampur Airport, Jalandhar in July 2015 after AAI had inspected the proposed site of 50 acres of land after receiving No Objection Certificate from Indian Air Force. Commercial flights started on 1 May 2018 when SpiceJet began operations under the UDAN Regional Connectivity Service of the Government of India.
