IndiGo and Air India Express cut winter routes, Hindon terminal sees daily flights slump from 20 to 12

Ghaziabad’s Hindon civil enclave—a secondary airport serving India’s National Capital Region—has suffered a 40 % reduction in departures after IndiGo and Air India Express suspended several winter routes. Officially the cuts were blamed on dense fog in January, but the schedules were never restored, leaving only 12 daily flights against a planned 20.

Air India Express has pared back to Mumbai, Bengaluru and Patna, dropping leisure favourites such as Goa and Jaipur. IndiGo continues on Varanasi, Chennai and Ahmedabad but has shelved Kolkata and Indore for the season. Boutique carrier Star Air is down to two routes, while FlyBig exited altogether late last year.



The contraction rekindles questions about Hindon’s long-term viability. The terminal shares infrastructure with an Indian Air Force base and is capped at dawn-to-dusk civilian operations. Although footfall has climbed from 8,000 to 80,000 passengers annually since opening in 2019, erratic airline commitment and frequent cancellations undermine passenger confidence and travel-policy adoption by corporates.

The Airports Authority of India has responded by fast-tracking a terminal expansion—tripling kerbside capacity and adding three check-in counters—but airlines say the real fix is a CAT-III ILS to handle winter fog and a relaxation of the military curfew. Until then, travel managers may prefer Delhi’s IGI Airport despite longer road transfers.

Passengers with cancelled tickets are entitled to full refunds or free rebooking under India’s civil-aviation regulations. Mobility teams should monitor issued-not-flown reports for employees using Hindon and budget extra ground-transport time if rerouted through IGI.