Dholera Airport Status 2026

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved Phase I on 14 June 2022 at an estimated ₹1,305 crore, to be finished within 48 months, with operations planned from 2025-26. (Ministry of Civil Aviation, 14 June 2022) The project belongs to Dholera International Airport Company Ltd (DIACL), owned 51% by the Airports Authority of India, 33% by the Government of Gujarat and 16% by NICDIT, the Centre’s industrial-corridor trust.

That approval gave the airport three jobs: carry passengers and cargo for the Dholera Special Investment Region, act as a cargo hub for the industrial belt, and serve as a second airport for Ahmedabad. It projected 3 lakh passengers in the first year, growing to 23 lakh over 20 years, and 20,000 tonnes of cargo growing to 2.73 lakh tonnes. Those are 20-year forecasts for the airport as approved. Public government documents give clearer detail for Phase I than for any formally defined Phase II or III.

Phase I as reported in July 2026: the runway, taxiway and ATC tower; a 25,000 m² passenger terminal designed for 20 lakh passengers a year; a 2,500 m² cargo terminal; and ancillary buildings. (Ministry of Civil Aviation, 14 July 2026)

Who will run it

That decision is still open. In January 2026 DIACL, through AAI, invited bids from consultants to help it on-board an airport operator through a public-private partnership. (AAI / DIACL tender 2026_AAI_263464_1, 19 January 2026) The consultant’s brief covers demand for an aviation hub, business-aviation (FBO) facilities, MRO and aerospace manufacturing; passenger and cargo forecasts over 35 years, domestic and international; the airport’s catchment by air, rail and road; a financial model for the concession under AERA tariff rules; and running the bid through to signing with the “OMD Concessionaire” (operate, manage, develop).

In plain terms: a private concessionaire is expected to run Dholera under contract, as at most large Indian airports, and in January 2026 that operator had not been chosen. We have not found a public record of an award since.

Flying schools, MRO and aircraft assembly

In February 2026 AAI tendered space for Flying Training Organisations at Dholera on a 25-year concession: 20 years, plus five more if the Government of Gujarat extends its land lease to DIACL. (AAI tender 2026_AAI_268923_1, 26 February 2026) Pilot-training flights are not passenger services.

The Minister’s July review added on-site MRO hangars, including support for the C-295 military transport, and an Embraer–Adani Aviation Systems MoU for a civil aircraft final assembly line at Dholera, with the first aircraft targeted for 2028. (Ministry of Civil Aviation, 14 July 2026) All of that is planned, not operating.

An operating international airport is a real economic asset. It changes who can reach the region, it supports logistics and hospitality demand, and it makes industrial land more viable for anything that ships by air.

But the market has known this airport was coming for more than a decade. Land within a few kilometres has already repriced on the expectation, which is why Navagam — 2.6 km away — does not trade at agricultural rates. Buying today on the basis that the airport will open means paying a price that already contains that assumption.

The move that is left is not the announcement — it is the gap between an airport that exists and an airport that is busy. Traffic takes years to build, and land value follows traffic, not ribbon-cutting.

For land 20 km out, the opening is close to irrelevant on its own. Those parcels depend on the expressway and on their own TP scheme progress far more than on a runway they cannot see.