Varanasi Airport Closes Runway for Four Hours on Final Day of Namo Ghat Air Show NOTAM
Why It MattersHosting a military air show at a shared civil-military airport shows how event airspace restrictions displace scheduled traffic, forcing airlines to retime whole rotations while the airport carries closure and passenger-information burdens.
What happened
Varanasi Airport will shut its runway entirely for four hours on Sunday, the last day of the air show at Namo Ghat. Airport director Puneet Gupta said that from 11 a.m. no passenger, private or other aircraft will be allowed to land or take off. Only Air Force aircraft will remain in the flying zone, operating on the instructions of the ATC tower set up for the event.
The NOTAM (Notice to Air Mission) covering the show was in effect from 21 to 25 October, issued to ensure security and smooth air traffic during the show. Gupta said regular flights could not operate on 22 October, the day after intensive rehearsals on 21 October, because of technical reasons and scheduling constraints. The show was halted for a day on Friday because of the local MLC elections, so regular flights operated as usual that day. On Saturday, with the show in full swing, no regular commercial aircraft took off from Babatpur Airport.
Airlines adjusted their schedules around the restrictions. On Saturday, Air India Express changed the timings of its domestic flights to Mumbai, Bengaluru and Delhi and its international flight to Sharjah. IndiGo revised the timings of its flights to Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Delhi and Pune. Akasa Air rescheduled its daily Varanasi–Bengaluru flight.
The airport administration and all airlines issued a joint advisory telling passengers to check the revised and confirmed flight timing with their airline's customer care, official website or toll-free number before leaving for Varanasi (Babatpur) Airport.
How it unfolded
Runway completely closed for four hours; only Air Force aircraft remain in the flying zone.
Show in full swing; no regular commercial aircraft take off from Babatpur Airport, and airlines retime their flights.
Air show halted for a day because of the local MLC elections; regular flights operate as usual.
Regular flights do not operate, for technical reasons and scheduling constraints.
Intensive rehearsals held; NOTAM for the air show takes effect.
Industry impact & what to watch
Varanasi's arrangement is a familiar one at airports where a single runway serves both civil and military traffic: when a large public flying event is staged nearby, the airspace restriction is not a narrow carve-out but a full suspension of scheduled movements for the hours concerned. Airlines absorb that by retiming flights across several routes at once, as the Air India Express, IndiGo and Akasa Air changes show, and the airport and carriers fall back on joint passenger advisories because the revised timings are the only reliable record of what is operating.
The cost of such an event is therefore spread unevenly. The host and the Air Force get a controlled flying zone with its own ATC tower, while commercial carriers carry the schedule disruption and the airport carries the passenger communication burden. The pattern of one day of rehearsals, a day with no regular flights, and a final-day closure also shows that the restriction was shaped around the show programme rather than applied as a single uniform block.
The NOTAM runs to 25 October, so the next marker is the end of the Sunday closure window and the resumption of normal scheduled operations at Babatpur, after which airlines would be expected to return to their regular timings.
