There has been a significant growth in the passenger movement in the last couple of years with an almost 50 per cent increase in the number of aircraft movements since 2009 at the Biju Patnaik International Airport. The city airport which is owned, managed and operated by Airports Authority of India (AAI) connects with Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Bangalore, Vishakhapatnam and Port Blair directly.Though the airport received the international status in November, 2013, but only few international charter flights have operated since then.
However, the airport is all set to start international flight with the Union Government deciding to operate Air India flight operation directly to Dubai from July 10. The trail run for the same is scheduled to be held on July 8.The previous domestic terminal building has been modified and converted into the International Terminal Building (T2) which is structured on an area of 6264 sqmts having the Peak Hour Capacity of 400 Pax (200 Arriving and 200 Departing) with 0.18 Million Annual Passenger Holding Capacity.
The fully air-conditioned terminal is equipped digitally controlled public address systems, , six check in counters with all the facilities for Immigrations and Customs, three Coveyor belts along with ample space to park 300 cars, 45 taxies and six buses at a time.The terminal is equipped with state-of-the-art flight information display systems (FIDS) and CCTV cameras monitoring the daily movements.