Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport - Flight Guru

Sri Guru Ram Das Jee International Airport (IATA: ATQ,Â ICAO: VIAR) named after Guru Ram Das, the fourth Sikh Guru and the founder of Amritsar city, is an international airport about 11 kilometres (7Â mi) northwest of the city of Amritsar, India. It is located on the Amritsar-Ajnala Road, near the village of Raja Sansi. Besides Amritsar, the airport serves neighbouring areas of Punjab, Western districts of Himachal Pradesh and Southern districts of Jammu and Kashmir. The new integrated terminal has doubled the capacity of the old terminal. There are 11 domestic and 7 international flights from this airport.

Facilities

Terminal

The arrivals section of the old terminal was inaugurated in September 1995, and the departures section was made operational in March 2006. A new integrated terminal building, built in glass and steel and equipped with modern facilities like an inline X-ray baggage inspection and conveyor system, Flight Information Display System (FIDS), Common Use Terminal Equipment (CUTE), and CCTV for surveillance among others, was inaugurated on 25 February 2009, with an area of approximately 40,175 square metres (432,440Â sqÂ ft) marking an improvement over the earlier 12,770 square metres (137,500Â sqÂ ft) facility. The new terminal building is a blend of modern and Indian designs, constructed in glass and steel with Indian style arches and colours. For the quarter ending June 30, 2016, the airport registered a 59.6% growth of international passenger traffic.

The integrated terminal building has four aero bridges, an annual capacity of 1.46 million passengers with a peak hour capacity of 1,200 passengers. The building has 30 check-in counters, 4 X-ray scanners (for baggage), 26 immigration Counters, 10 custom counters, 12 security check booths, and 4 conveyor belts for arrivals. The apron has been extended to cater for parking of a total of 14 aircraft (8 Category 'Eâ€™, 3 Category 'Dâ€™ and 3 Category 'Câ€™ types of aircraft) from the earlier capacity of ten aircraft and strengthened for parking of Category 'Eâ€™ type of aircraft. The departure and arrival halls operate duty-free shops. The departure hall also accommodates foreign currency exchange service, a book store, restaurants and other shops for the convenience of departing passengers.

Runway

CAT II ILS became operational on 23 December 2011 and reduced the visibility requirement for an aircraft landing at Amritsar Airport on Runway 34 from the existing 650 metres to 350 metres benefiting airlines in terms of increased safety and avoiding diversions to other airports resulting in better operational and environmental efficiency. The runway is currently going through complete runway repavement and upgrade of its strength, inset lighting, and ILS CAT III that will be completed in March 2017.