India's biggest and busiest airports

Riding high on the aviation boom, India has built 17 international airports. However, not all of them are profitable.

The Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) has proposed to increase the  airport charges, which would be valid till 2015-16 and sought the views of all stakeholders.

International carriers are against plans to hike airport charges at the newly-developed Chennai International Airport, saying it would have negative effect on foreign travel.

This comes in the backdrop of hikes in charges at Delhi and Mumbai airports.

Take a look at India's biggest and busiest airports...

1. Indira Gandhi International Airport (New Delhi) 

This is the busiest airport in India terms of daily flight traffic. With the swanky new Terminal 3, Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport has become an important aviation hub, with a current capacity of handling more than 46 million passengers.

In 2011-12, the airport handled 35.88 million passengers and the planned expansion program will increase its capacity to handle 100 million passengers by 2030.

The new Terminal 3 building has had the capacity to handle an additional 34 million passengers. The Terminal 3 is the world's eighth largest passenger terminal.

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2. Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (Mumbai)

One of South Asia's most notable aviation hubs, the Mumbai airport is the busiest airport in India in terms of international passenger traffic and the second busiest in terms of overall passenger traffic.

The airport has five operating terminals spread over an operational area of 4,800 acres.

The airport, with its five operating terminals is spread over an operational area of 1,450 acres.

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3. Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (Hyderabad)

The Hyderabad International Airport has been ranked as the world's best airport for the second year in a row among 49 airports handling 5-15 million passengers per annum.

The Rajiv Gandhi International Airport is the second airport built in India on a public-private partnership.

It was the sixth busiest airport in the country in terms of international and overall passenger traffic.

Hyderabad international airport has been named amongst the world's top five in the annual Airport Service Quality (ASQ) passenger survey along with the ones at Seoul, Singapore, Hong Kong and Beijing.

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4. Bengaluru International Airport

Spread across 4,000 acres of land, the impressive airport replaced the old HAL airport in Bengaluru.

For the financial year 2011-12, it was the fourth busiest airport in the country in terms of overall passenger traffic of 12.69 million and fifth busiest in terms of international passenger traffic.

It has been awarded 'India's best airport' for the year 2011 by the survey by Skytrax.

5. Annadurai International Airport (Chennai)

Chennai has India's third busiest airport in terms of both international and overall passenger traffic.

The airport was built on the land donated by former governor of Madras Presidency, L Sriramulu Naidu.

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6. Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport (Kolkata)

From April 2006 to March 2012, it was the fifth busiest airport in the country in terms of overall passenger traffic, and ninth busiest in terms of international passenger traffic.

Spread over an area of 2,460 acres, Kolkata airport is the largest in eastern India

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7. Cochin International Airport

It is the largest and busiest airport in Kerala. 

For the financial year 2011-12, it was the fourth busiest airport in India in terms of international passenger traffic and seventh busiest in terms of overall passenger traffic.

Cochin International Airport is the first airport in the country to be developed under a public-private partnership (PPP) model.

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8. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport (Ahmedabad)

This is India's eighth busiest airport with an average of 250 aircraft movements a day. The airport is spread over an area of 1,124 acres.

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9. Goa International Airport (Panaji)

The Goa International Airport is spread over an area of 1,700 acres.

The Goa airport is one of the few profitable airports managed by the Airport Authority of India.

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10. Thiruvananthapuram International Airport

Thiruvananthapuram airport is the first international airport in a non-metro city in India.

It is the 8th busiest airport in the country in terms of international passenger traffic and tenth busiest in terms of overall passenger traffic.

It is the second busiest airport in Kerala in terms of domestic and international traffic after Cochin International Airport.

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11. Jaipur International Airport

Jaipur airport is the only international airport in Rajasthan. It was granted the status of international airport in December 2005.

There are plans to extend the runway to 12,000 ft (3,658 m) and expand the terminal building to accommodate more passengers.

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12. Srinagar International Airport

Srinagar International Airport has been named after the Kashmiri saint, Sheikh Noor-ud-din Noorani, popularly as Sheikh-ul-Alam.

The airport has been revamped with a host of new facilities.

A new terminal for departure and arrival, aero bridges and other operational facilities were inaugurated in 2009.

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13. Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport (Amritsar)

The airport currently handles about 101 commercial flights (international and domestic) in a week.

The airport is named after Guru Ram Das, the fourth Sikh Guru.

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14. Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport (Guwahati)

Guwahati International Airport, managed by Airports Authority of India is a major hub for flights to North-East India.

The airport has been named after Gopinath Bordoloi who was a freedom fighter and also the first chief minister of Assam after independence.

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15. Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport (Nagpur)

The airport connects Nagpur to India's main aviation hubs of Mumbai and Delhi, as well as the international destinations like Sharjah and Dubai.

This airport is slated to be the multimodal international hub airport, which will reduce the overload on other busy airports in India.

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16. Calicut International Airport

The third International airport in Kerala, the airport serves north Kerala. Air India Express has a base at the airport.

The airport was given the international airport status in February 2006 after it enhanced infrastructural facilities for handling international flights.

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17. Veer Savarkar International Airport (Port Blair)

Named after the Indian freedom fighter Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Port Blair airport received the international status in 2007.

It is managed by the Airport Authority of India. Its runaway stretches to distance of 3,290 metres (10,794 feet).