chennai airport maa
Architecture,  Asia,  Destinations,  India

Aviation Wanderlust – 60 Airports In India That Connected Me To Beautiful Towns and Cities

 

Aviation Wanderlust is real! I love the sight of the aircraft, big or small; they are enchanting. I have as much interest in these modern big birds as I have in ancient history. Fortunately, I could travel and traverse distances due to availability. Airports in India helped me explore new towns and cities. Below is the list that took me on an Aviation Wanderlust trip. It is because of the UDAN scheme that this was possible. UDAN is the ‘Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik’ scheme founded by our Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modiji.  Airports in India - nashik Ozar airport

Aviation Wanderlust – INDIA

I have travelled to over 60 different towns and cities that airports in India connect.

By the end of summer of 2026, my wanderlust had taken me through over 60 airports in India alone (49 in April 2021)

As the founder of ‘travel karmas’, before travelling internationally, I probably made the most boardings/landings from the previously operated airports in the cities of Hyderabad and Bangalore, earlier. located in Begumpet and HAL, respectively.

This was the time when Bengaluru was not renamed from Bangalore. Before the turn of the 21st century, there were only two major airlines that offered flight services for domestic travellers, namely ‘Indian Airlines’, our then national carrier and the savvy, cool ‘Jet Airways’!

Airports in India - Bengaluru

My frequent travel began when I had to make short trips/day trips to Bengaluru for professional work. All I had to do was get to the airport, which was 3 km away from home, purchase the ticket at the counter outside and get into the NTR terminal at Begumpet airport. Those were the days when I took the humble Autorickshaw to be dropped. It was so simple and easy.

Back then, the business class flight ticket cost was less than 4k, I recall that I paid around 3.5-3.75k for one way. And about 2k for the economy class.

jet airways

Both flights served an amazing breakfast, and that meant my meal was sorted. I was good to go as I was fuelled up for the day’s work ahead.

Airports in India - low cost carriers

The memories created between these two airports are immense. Moments from Begumpet Airport, Hyderabad and HAL Airport, Bengaluru, get added to this humble list of airports I traversed in my #dekhoapnadesh series. Thus making the count to 61 airports as of May 2026.

Names of Airports/Places that connected me to Cities and Towns across India.

Andhra Pradesh

1. KADAPA CDP

2. TIRUPATI TIR

3. VIJAYAWADA VGA

4. VISAKHAPATNAM VTZ

5. RAJAMUNDRY RJA

Assam

6. GUWAHATI GAU

Bihar

7. PATNA PAT

Chandigarh

8. CHANDIGARH IXC

Chhattisgarh

9. RAIPUR RPR

10. BILASPUR PAB

Delhi

11. DELHI DEL

Airports In India - T3 Terminal

Goa

12. DABOLIM GOI

Goa Airport

13. MOPA GOX

GUJARAT

14. VADODARA BDQ

vadodara airport bdq

15. AHMEDABAD AMD

Himachal Pradesh

16. SHIMLA SLV

Jammu and Kashmir

17. JAMMU IXJ

18. SRINAGAR SXR

Jharkhand

19. RANCHI IXR

Karnataka

20. BANGALORE  HAL

21. KGIA BLR

Bengaluru Airport

22. MANGALORE IXE

23. MYSORE MYQ

24. BELLARY VDY

25. BELAGAVI IXG

26. SHIVAMOGGA RQY

Kerala

kochi airport

27. THIRUVANANTHAPURAM TRV

28. KOCHI COK

kochi CIAL airport

29. KOZHIKODE CCJ

30. KANNUR CNN

Madhya Pradesh

31. BHOPAL BHO

32. GWALIOR GWL

33. INDORE IDR

Maharashtra

34. AURANGABAD IXU

35. KOLHAPUR KLH

36. MUMBAI BOM

37. NAGPUR NAG

38. NANDED NDC

39. NASHIK ISK

nashik airport

nashik airport

40. PUNE PNQ

41. SINDHUDURG SDW

42. JALGAON JLG

Odisha

43. BHUBANESWAR BBI

Puducherry

44. PUDUCHERRY PNY

low cost carriets

Rajasthan

45. BIKANER BKB

46. JAIPUR JAI

47. JODHPUR JDH

Tamil Nadu

48. CHENNAI MAA

chennai airport

chennai airport maa

49. COIMBATORE CJB

50. MADURAI IXM

51. TIRUCHIRAPALLI TRZ

52. SALEM SXV

Telangana

53. HYDERABAD HYD

54. BEGUMPET BPM

hyd airport

Begumpet old airport

Uttar Pradesh

55. KANPUR KNU

56. LUCKNOW LKO

57. PRAYAGRAJ IXD

58. VARANASI VNS

Uttarakhand

59. DEHRADUN DED

West Bengal

60. KOLKATA CCU

61. BAGDOGRA IXB

Major Airports in India that connected me to fly to International destinations are Hyderabad, New Delhi and Mumbai. Only once could I fly from Kochi to Don Mueang International Airport in Bangkok. Don Mueang is one of the world’s oldest operating airports, ever since it opened in 1914, now serves as a significant hub for low-cost airlines. I flew with Air Asia, then operating from major Indian cities. Once, I even arrived in Kolkata while returning from Yangon in Myanmar. It goes without saying that I started my International travel from my home city, Hyderabad. The first flight was in the year 2009 from the new airport, which opened in Shamshabad the previous year. It was close to midnight, departure by Thai Airways to Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok, Thailand.

Airports – INTERNATIONAL

Thailand
62. BANGKOK  BKK
63. PHUKET HKT
Thailand was my first International destination and my return flight tickets were booked from the same airline – Thai Airways. This meant I landed at the wonderful airport of Bangkok – the massive Suvarnabhumi Airport which is also but a delightful experience for window shopping and shopoholics alike. I would conclude that it is by far the best for duty free experience. I flew by Thai Airways from Phuket to Bangkok as well.
My next International destination was United Kingdom and visiting Europe is the most delightful part of my travel abroad. This time my return tickets were booked with British Airways which takes off from home city Hyderabad at few minutes past seven in the morning and giving me enough rest before I arrived in London by afternoon.

Europe

United Kingdom
64. LONDON LHR
I was fortunate to travel to Europe a few times after that but with transit halts in West Asian countries.
Germany
65. FRANKFURT FRA
66. MUNICH MUC
The first time I visited Germany, my flight arrived in Frankfurt. Oman Air was the economical ticket that was available on this route that year in 2013. The transit airport was Muscat with a short layover time. The flight from Muscat to Frankfurt was a full airline with the works. Arriving by evening on the same day.
Netherlands
67. AMSTERDAM AMS (3 times)
Finland
68. HELSINKI HEL
Switzerland
69. ZURICH ZRH
70. GENEVA GVA
Spain
71. BARCELONA BCN
72. MALAGA AGP
73. MADRID MAD
Portugal
74. LISBON LIS
Italy
75. ROME FCO
Hungary
76. BUDAPEST BUD
Romania
77. BUCHAREST OTP
Greece
78. CHANIA CHQ
79. ATHENS ATH
France
80. PARIS CDG
81. NICE NCE
Poland
82. WARSAW WAW
Croatia
83. ZAGREB ZAG
Bulgaria
84. SOFIA SOF
Turkey
85. ISTANBUL IST
Probably, IST in Istanbul is the only airport that I had been in transit and neither had the energy left by the end of that European trip as when I left Geneva for this city, I was terribly tired having spent the previous night out clubbing and reaching early the airport in time for the new type of immigration that was introduced. The EES Entry Exit System that came into effect by October 2025.

ASIA

West Asia
Oman
86 MUSCAT MCT
Qatar
87. DOHA DIA
United Arab Emirates  UAE
88. ABU DHABI AUH
Kuwait
89. KUWAIT KWI
East Asia
Malaysia
90. KUALA LUMPUR KUL
That one visit to down under was through KL  and flying Air Asia meant transit would be in KLIA 2.  It also gave me an opportunity to fly Qantas when I flew to Cairns from Brisbane and Virgin airlines from Cairns to Gold Coast in that trip. but the last flight out of Australia was from Gold Coast when I headed back to Kuala Lumpur when I was going to visit my childhood favourite country Taiwan.
Taiwan
91. TAIPEI TPE
Macao
92. MACAU MFM
Hong Kong
93. HONG KONG HKG
Vietnam
94. HANOI HAN
95. HO CHI MINH SGN
Singapore
96. SINGAPORE SIN
Nepal
97. KATHMANDU KTM
Thailand
98. BANGKOK DMK
Cambodia
99. PHNOM PENH PNH
Myanmar
100. YANGON RGN

Wanderlust Australia

101. MELBOURNE MEL
102. BRISBANE BNE
103. CAIRNS CNS
104. GOLD COAST OOL
The only country I got a chance to fly to and out of Africa is Egypt. This was in the year 2024 where my travel itinerary included Spanish, Roman, Greek and Egyptian Architectural sites. Although I had a ticket from Rabat in Morocco to Lisbon in the same year but weird like it may sound that I actually was at the shores of Tangier in Morocco but could not enter land due to change in visa compliances which were not updated online.
When I reached Greece, it also meant I would only go home via Cairo. Thanks to Etihad Airlines, I managed to reach on the same day when I flew out of Cairo via Abu Dhabi.  The ‘icing on the cake’ moment was when they allowed me the use of the free airport tour of the capital city giving me an opportunity to see the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque and few other landmarks within the short tour

Africa

Egypt
105. CAIRO CAI

North America

United States of America
106. NEW YORK JFK

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.