Chandigarh airport to remain closed for 20 days in May, in two intervals

Although the Chandigarh international airport was supposed to remain closed from May 12 to May 31 due to expansion work, the dates of its closure have now been revised as the Punjab and Haryana High Court has announced that the airport will instead be closed in two intervals.
The reason why this change has been brought forth is because the city of Chandigarh is scheduled to host the two-day 49th Conference of Governors from May 19 to May 20.

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Simply put, the first phase of the airport closure will be from May 12 to May 17, thus keeping it open from May 18 to May 21. The second phase of closure will be from May 21 to June 3.

The request for keeping the airport open on the aforementioned dates was made by Air Commodore S Srinivasan, Air Officer Commanding, 12 Wing, Air Force Station, because the President of India along with governors from all other Indian states are going to visit Chandigarh for attending the conference.


Apart from that, there was also a letter from the secretary to the President of India, Rashtrapati Bhavan, asking for the same.

This is not the first time that the Chandigarh airport is going to be closed. It was closed for a fortnight last month from February 12 to February 26 for increasing the length of its 9,000-feet runway to 10,200 feet so that wide-bodied commercial aircraft are able to operate from there. Now, when the 20-day closure is imposed in the month of May, the rest of the expansion work should be completed.

Chandigarh airport is a key airport which is not only connected to domestic destinations like Leh, and Jammu and Srinagar, but also has direct international flights to places like Dubai and Sharjah.