Parliament Question: Expenditure on non-functional airports

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF CIVIL AVIATION RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. : 199 TO BE ANSWERED ON THE 2nd February 2026 EXPENDITURE ON NON-FUNCTIONAL AIRPORTS 199. SMT PRIYANKA CHATURVEDI Will the Minister of CIVIL AVIATION be pleased to state:- (a) the total number of non-operational and non-functional airports currently managed by the Airports Authority of India, State-wise details, total capital expenditure incurred on their construction and annual maintenance costs being incurred despite zero flight operations; (b) the updated figures for 2023-24, 2024-25 on number of non-functional airports, total capital locked, annual operational losses, staff salaries paid, depreciation costs, despite these airports serving no public purpose; and (c) the details of airports inaugurated with great fanfare by Government but subsequently shut down or remain non-operational under the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) with reasons for their failure? ANSWER Minister of State in the Ministry of CIVIL AVIATION (Shri Murlidhar Mohol) (a) & (b): The State-wise list of non-operational airports under the Airports Authority of India, along with the capital expenditure incurred on these airports up to 31.03.2025 is placed at Annexure-I. The annual operational losses along with the expenditure incurred towards maintenance of these airports including employee cost, operating expenditure, administrative expenses, depreciation and finance cost, during FY 2023-24 and 2024-25, are placed at Annexure-II. (c): Currently, 15 (fifteen) airports are non-operational under the UDAN Scheme due to factors such as completion of the three-year Viability Gap Funding (VGF) support period, poor visibility conditions, daytime runway restrictions at VFR-only airports, shortage of aircraft, leasing issues, temporary discontinuation by airlines, novation of routes and low passenger load factors. These airports include Pathankot, Pakyong, Kushinagar, Aligarh, Azamgarh, Chitrakoot, Shravasti, Moradabad, Bhavnagar, Ambikapur, Ludhiana, Datia, Kalaburagi, Shimla and Cooch Behar. ******ANNEXURE -I Annexu re referred in reply to parts (a) & (b) of Rajya Sabha Unstarre d Question No. 199 for 02.02.2026 List of airports owned by Airports Authority of India that are presently non- operational (Rs. In crore) SL. STATE / UT AIRPORT Capital NO. Expenditure upto 31.03.2025 1 ANDHRA PRADESH DONAKONDA - 2 ARUNACHAL PRADESH DAPARIZO - 3 BIHAR JOGBANI - 4 BIHAR MUZAFFARPUR - 5 BIHAR RAXAUL - 6 GUJARAT DEESA 0.92 7 JHARKHAND CHAKULIA - 8 JHARKHAND DHALBHUMGARH 0.07 9 MADHYA PRADESH KHANDWA - 10 MADHYA PRADESH PANNA - 11 MEGHALAYA SHELLA - 12 MIZORAM AIZAWL (TURIAL) 0.01 13 TAMIL NADU THANJAVUR (CE) 1.75 14 TAMIL NADU VELLORE 30.25 15 TELANGANA NADIRGUL - 16 TELANGANA WARANGAL 6.40 17 TRIPURA KAILASHAHAR 1.29 18 TRIPURA KAMALPUR 2.71 19 TRIPURA KHOWAI - 20 WEST BENGAL ASANSOL 0.96 21 WEST BENGAL BALURGHAT 1.52 22 WEST BENGAL MALDA 4.16Annexure-II Annexure referred in reply to parts (a) & (b) of Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question No. 199 for 02.02.2026 Statement showing airport-wise expenditure incurred and operational losses in respect of non operational airports (Rs. in crores) FY 2023-24 FY 2024-25 SL AIRPORTS Total Operational Total Operational No Expenditure Loss Expenditure Loss 1 DONAKONDA 0.19 -0.19 0.34 -0.34 2 DAPARZIO 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 3 JOGBANI 0.28 -0.28 0.28 -0.28 4 MUZAFFARPUR 0.18 -0.18 0.18 -0.18 5 RAXUAL 0.25 -0.25 0.25 -0.25 6 DEESA 0.00 0.00 0.39 -0.39 7 CHAKULIA 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 8 DHALBHUMGARH 0.00 0.00 -0.02* 0.02 9 KHANDWA 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 10 PANNA 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 11 SHELLA 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 12 AIZWAL(TURIAL) 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 13 THANJAVUR(CE) -0.01* 0.01 0.21 -0.2 14 VELLORE 1.03 -1.08 3.24 -2.96 15 NADIRGUL 0.00 0 0.00 0.00 16 WARANGAL 0.61 -0.61 0.69 -0.68 17 KAILASHAHAR 0.02 -0.02 0.76 -0.76 18 KAMALPUR 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 19 KHOWAI 0.00 0.00 0.40 -0.4 20 ASANSOL 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 Note: 1. Total n umber of AAI owned non-operational airports a re 22 airports, ho wever 2 airports namely Balurghat and Malda are under the operational control of State, have not been considered in the above statement. 2. The expenditure shown in the above statement is the total expenditure which includes employee cost, operating expenditure, administrative expenses, depreciation and finance cost. *The expenditure figure shown in (-) is mainly due to (i) Prior period adjustments (ii) R eversal of provision for bad debt (iii) Reversal of consultancy charges, etc.