Unfinished wall, 'porous' passenger area, foreign CEO: What's delaying Noida airport inauguration?

NOIDA: Calendar year 2025 is almost up and the answer to whether Noida International Airport (NIA) will become operational this fiscal, which is by March 31, 2026, should be known on Christmas.Union aviation secretary Samir Sinha will on Thursday hold a review of the status of the airport - which still has some key elements, including the critical perimeter wall, unfinished - with all agencies involved, based on which its readiness for inauguration will be decided. After formal inauguration, at least 45 days are required for an airport to become operational.A source close to developments told TOI, "NIA's perimeter wall was not ready till very recently.

In its absence, watch towers have been set up at regular intervals on the perimeter that require proper illumination. Passenger flow areas for arrivals and departures are porous at some points, due to which there is a potential for mix-ups happening, like arriving flyers passing on stuff to departing ones and vice-versa.

This needs to be plugged."Besides, bomb disposal equipment at the airport is yet to be certified by Central Industrial Security Force.

The aviation ministry, meanwhile, has taken up the issue of the NIA CEO, Christoph Schnellmann, being an expat with the home ministry. They are learnt to have pointed out that the CEOs of both Air India and IndiGo are foreign nationals as well. "We expect to resolve this issue, too," a source said. Schnellmann is an old India hand and was involved with the construction of Bengaluru's Kempegowda International Airport in 2007-08.

Foreign CEOs for greenfield airports need security clearance from the home ministry.Secretary Sinha on Thursday will meet senior officials of agencies like Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), CISF and Directorate General of Civil Aviation, apart from executives of NIA. Once these issues are resolved, an inauguration date will be sought from the Prime Minister's Office. Doing this in Jan is critical if NIA is to become operational this fiscal and then ramp up operations in the peak summer months.The Navi Mumbai Airport, for instance, was inaugurated on Oct 8, 2025, and will start handling flights from Thursday (Dec 25) - a gap of 2.5 months. Mopa, Goa's second airport, was inaugurated on Dec 11, 2022. It became operational from Jan 5, 2023. New airports gradually ramp up operations to check whether their systems are working fine. Teething troubles are not uncommon in large infrastructure projects like airports. Schnellmann had recently told TOI NIA will begin with a "limited window of daytime operations" in the first few weeks and then gradually have night flights.A specific process - called "operational readiness and airport transfer" (ORAT) - is undertaken to bridge the gap between construction readiness and operational readiness.