Rourkela Airport

Rourkela Airport is a private airport located near Chhend Colony, 6 Kilometres west of the steel city of Rourkela in the state of Odisha. It is mostly used by dignitaries visiting Rourkela, especially officials of Steel Authority of India Limited(SAIL) and other V.I.Ps.

The airstrip was constructed by the Tata Iron and Steel Company in 1950s for the purpose of carrying officials of the company, who regularly visited the area to survey and supervise the transportation of dolomite and other minerals from the district of Sundargarh for their industry. Small planes used to fly daily between Rourkela and Jamshedpur carrying the officials between these two steel cities. In 1961, this airport was taken by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and a small aerodrome was constructed at the spot. With the construction of the new airport, Vayudoot planes started flying between the cities Ranchi and Kolkata via Rourkela. A Kolkata-Rourkela-Ranchi Vayudoot flight PF-715 used to fly daily between these three cities. Also another flight between Ranchi and Bhubaneswar via Rourkela used to operate in late 80s. However, in early 90s, Vayudoot suffered heavy losses and it reduced its flights from 105 airports to just 45 airports, hence the air services to Rourkela were stopped. In 1994 the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) took control of the Rourkela Airport from A.A.I. thus halting the air services to the city. The Airport is still used by the SAIL to receive its private jets. A three member survey team of AAI that made a spot assessment of the Rourkela airstrip in October 2007 to find out the feasibility of re-introduction of air connectivity to the city expressed satisfaction over the existing infrastructure.

Airlines and Destinations

Deccan Chartered to operate on Kolkata-Rourkela route from January 2011. This operation is yet to start as it is only planned. Air Odisha started charter flights flying everyday between Rourkela, Jharsuguda and Bhubaneswar on 1 November 2012.