Jewar’s land donors become first passengers at Noida International Airport

Around 170 farmers from the Jewar region, including 20 women, who had voluntarily given up their ancestral land for the Noida International Airport project, were among the passengers on the inaugural commercial flight from the airport to Lucknow on Monday. The gesture was conceived by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath as a tribute to those whose land made the project possible.

The group arrived at the airport holding boarding passes, many travelling for the first time in their lives. Union Civil Aviation Minister Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu personally distributed commemorative boarding passes to the passengers during the event. The group was scheduled to meet Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in Lucknow upon arrival.

Abrar Khan, one of the passengers, described the experience as a matter of pride. “We are very delighted and obliged to travel on the first flight from Noida International Airport to Lucknow. What we envisioned is becoming a reality before us today,” he said. Khan said the invitation to be part of the first flight had come from the Chief Minister himself and called it a matter of honour.

Hera Rashid, a young woman from a village near the airport, called the moment historic. “We will experience the first flight. It is free for us, and we will meet Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in Lucknow,” she said.

A farmer aged around 65, who was among the passengers, said he had given up 30 bighas of his land for the airport project. He expressed happiness at seeing the development take shape, but also raised an unresolved grievance. “We were also promised a job but have yet to get it,” he said.

Another woman passenger said the opportunity to be part of the first flight was a matter of pride for the villagers of the region, many of whom had watched their cropfields transform into one of the country’s newest aviation hubs over the past several years.

Jewar MLA Dhirendra Singh, speaking about the significance of the moment, said the launch of passenger services was as much about the contribution of farmers as it was about a new air route.

“The very families who dedicated their ancestral land for the national interest and the state’s bright future are today taking to the skies from that same soil,” he said. He added that hands that once tilled the land now held boarding passes.

Singh described the flight as carrying a meaning beyond travel. “When the farmers of Jewar boarded the flight to Lucknow today, it was not merely their journey; it was a historic flight representing India’s development, the dignity of farmers and a transforming Uttar Pradesh,” he said.

The families on board were largely those who had sold their ancestral land during the first phase of the project, land that for generations had been used for farming and now forms part of the runway and terminal infrastructure of one of India’s newest greenfield airports.

For the villagers of Jewar, Monday’s flight closed a particular kind of loop. The land they once worked has become the ground from which they took off. Whether the promises made to them, including the job assured to the 65-year-old farmer who gave up 30 bighas, are fulfilled in the months ahead remains a question that will likely shape how this community comes to view the airport that now stands where their fields once were.