Dehradun Airport, also known as Jolly Grant Airport, is located 25 km south-east of Dehradun. Commercial operations began on 30 March 2008 after a runway extension to accommodate larger aircraft. A new terminal building was inaugurated in February 2009. Located from Rishikesh, and from Haridwar, the airport allows easy access to the region. It is approximately a 30 minutes drive to Rishikesh and 40 minutes to Haridwar and Dehradun. Dehradun airport is 37thbusiest airport in India with 1,240,173 annual passengers. It is also known as the Air Gateway of Garhwal and plays an important role in the tourism of Uttarakhand.
History
Jolly Grant is the name of the place located in district Dehradun where the airport is situated. Jolly Grant is at a distance of 27 km from Dehradun City. Vayudoot operated scheduled services to New Delhi, Lucknow and Pantnagar from 1982 to 1995. Air Deccan started flights between Dehradun and New Delhi in December 2004 and added a second daily flight from August 2006. The Airport Authority of India suspended flight operations at the airport from 1 March 2007 in order to execute its airport modernization plan. The runway was extended from 3,500 feet to 7,000 feet and also broadened from 23 metres to 45 metres to enable the landing of narrow body jets like the Boeing 737 and the Airbus 320. A night landing system was installed and a new terminal building and ATC tower were also constructed. The expansion work was expected to cost ₹720 million and was to be completed by the end of 2007. However, it took a few months more and scheduled flights resumed only in March 2008 with Air Deccan re-launching its flights. Air India launched its Delhi to Dehradun services on 28 January 2010, followed by SpiceJet in 2012.
The New Domestic Terminal Building at Dehradun is a 4,200 square metre glass and steel structure with central air conditioning, central heating, a Flight Information Display System and CCTV surveillance systems. The terminal has peak-hour passenger handling capacity of 150 passengers and annual handling capacity of 122,000. It has 11 check-in counters, an X-ray baggage scanner, three security check booths in the Departures section and two baggage claimconveyor belts in the arrivals section. Its adjoining airport apron can accommodate two Category 'C' type of aircraft. AAI has further proposed to expand the Dehradun airport by constructing a new integrated terminal building and allied facilities at an investment of Rs 3448 million.
