History
Surat airport was built and owned by the State government of Gujarat. During the 1990s, Vayudoot and Gujarat Airways had been operating through Surat Airport and both discontinued their flights since May 1994 and January 2000, respectively. The airport, with a 1400 metre airstrip and an adjoining 60 by 40 metre apron was then transferred to the Airports Authority of India (AAI) in 2003, who took up the airport for modernisation. After a failed initial attempt in July 2004 to connect Surat with Mumbai and Bhavnagar due to poor airport infrastructure, the now defunct airline Air Deccan operated an ATR 42 aircraft daily from November 2004 to July 2005.
Until 2007, Surat was the only city in the world with a population of over 4.6 million people without a functioning airport. Besides being the 4th fastest growing city in the world, its GDP is among the highest in India, thus the absence of fully functioning air-connectivity is a major hindrance. Commercial services from Surat resumed on 6 May 2007 with an Indian Airlines Airbus 319 flight to Delhi flagged off by Indian Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel at 1240 IST. By this time, major improvements had been made to the Airport.
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