Pakyong Airport
Pakyong Airport | |||||||||||
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| Summary | |||||||||||
| Airport type | Public | ||||||||||
| Owner | Government of India | ||||||||||
| Operator | Airports Authority of India | ||||||||||
| Serves | Gangtok | ||||||||||
| Location | Pakyong, Pakyong district, Sikkim, India | ||||||||||
| Opened | 24 September 2018 | ||||||||||
| Time zone | Indian Standard Time (+5:30) | ||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 1,416 m / 4,646 ft | ||||||||||
| Coordinates | 27°13′57″N 88°35′18″E / 27.23250°N 88.58833°E | ||||||||||
| Website | Pakyong Airport | ||||||||||
| Map | |||||||||||
| Runways | |||||||||||
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| Statistics (April 2024 - March 2025) | |||||||||||
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Source: AAI | |||||||||||
Pakyong Airport (IATA: PYG, ICAO: VEPY) is a domestic airport serving Gangtok, the capital of Sikkim, India. It has been operationalized under the UDAN Scheme of the Government of India. Spread over 201 acres (81 ha), the airport is located at Pakyong, about 31 km (22 mi) south of Gangtok. At 4,646 ft, the airport is one of the five highest airports in India. It is also the first greenfield airport constructed in Northeast India, the 100th operational airport in India, and the only airport in the state of Sikkim.
Inaugurated on 24 September 2018 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, commercial flight operations started 4 October 2018. Upon its opening, CNN described it as one of the most scenic airports in the world. However, commercial flights have been disrupted due to known weather conditions, being originally planned and designed as a Visual Flight Rules (VFR) Airport. Due to these visibility issues along with agitation from the local villagers who were displaced and strip area issues, the airport's only commercial passenger airline SpiceJet temporarily suspended flight operations to the airport effective 1 June 2019. After a suspension of 19 months, flight operations by SpiceJet resumed on 23 January 2021, following the establishment of Required Navigation Performance (RNP) approaches. There are no current flights from Pakyong.