page_title: Rajiv Gandhi International Airport
section_title: Construction and opening (2005–2008)
hierarchical_section_title: Rajiv Gandhi International Airport / History / Construction and opening (2005–2008)
caption_attribution_description: Departures area at Rajiv Gandhi Int'l Airport, Hyderabad, India
context_page_description: Rajiv Gandhi International Airport is an international airport that serves Hyderabad, the capital of the Indian state of Telangana. It is located in Shamshabad, about 24 kilometres south of Hyderabad. It was opened on 23 March 2008 to replace Begumpet Airport. It is named after Rajiv Gandhi, former Prime Minister of India. It has also ranked in AirHelp's list of top 10 airports in the world.
  The airport has one passenger terminal, a cargo terminal and two runways. There are also aviation training facilities, a fuel farm, a solar power plant and two MRO facilities. As of 2019 March, RGIA is the sixth busiest airport by passenger traffic in India. The airport served about 21.4 million passengers in fiscal year 2018–19. The airport serves as a hub for Alliance Air, Blue Dart Aviation, SpiceJet, Lufthansa Cargo, Quikjet Cargo, TruJet and IndiGo. It is a focus city for Air India.
context_section_description: The project was forwarded by Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy gained power and Construction began on 16 March 2005 when Sonia Gandhi laid the foundation stone. Two days prior, the Central Government had named the airport after former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, who had undergone pilot training in Hyderabad. The naming resulted in opposition from the Telugu Desam Party (TDP). At Begumpet Airport, the international terminal was named after Rajiv Gandhi while the domestic terminal was named after TDP founder N. T. Rama Rao; the TDP wanted to continue this naming convention at the new airport. However, the new airport has only one terminal.
  Roughly three years after the foundation stone laying ceremony, the airport was inaugurated on 14 March 2008 amid protests. The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) repeated its demand for the naming of the domestic terminal. In addition, on 12 and 13 March, 20,000 AAI employees had conducted a strike against the closure of Begumpet Airport, as well as that of HAL Airport in Bangalore, fearing they would lose their jobs.
  RGIA was originally scheduled to open to commercial operations on 16 March 2008; however, the date was delayed due to protests from some airlines over the high ground handling rates at the airport. Once the rates were reduced, the launch date was set for 23 March 2008. Although Lufthansa Flight 752 from Frankfurt was scheduled to be the first flight to land at RGIA, two SpiceJet flights landed earlier. However, the Lufthansa flight still received the planned ceremonial welcome upon its 12:25 am arrival.
caption: Departures area
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