The newly-inaugurated airport in Ayodhya witnessed a remarkable influx of more than 39 private jets in less than 30 hours, as a host of prominent personalities from various domains, including Bollywood, business, sports, and the arts, converged to attend the historic inauguration of the Ram Temple on Monday, December 22.
The surge in air traffic led to a significant congestion, with several chartered flights having to circle for up to 30 minutes over Ayodhya and its vicinity, awaiting clearance, as per flight tracking data monitored by India Today’s Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) team.
According to the Swedish plane tracker Flightradar24, Maharishi Valmiki International Airport received the highest number of VIP flights from Mumbai in anticipation of the consecration ceremony of the idol of Ram Lalla at the Ram Janmabhoomi Temple.
Of the 13 private flights from Mumbai to Ayodhya, six arrived on December 21, while the remaining seven, carrying celebrities such as Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Vicky Kaushal, and Katrina Kaif, landed the following day. Hyderabad emerged as the second most common departure point with seven flights, followed by Delhi (5), Lucknow (4), Jamnagar (3), and one each from London, Jodhpur, Bhopal, Trichy, Bengaluru, Dehradun, and Bhubaneswar.
The incoming jets included a range of ultra-luxury aircraft, such as the Gulfstream G650ER, Dassault Falcon 2000LX, Embraer Legacy 600, Embraer Lineage 1000, Beechcraft Super King Air 200, and various Bombardier models, among others.
Owing to the high demand for parking space at the Ayodhya international airport, which can accommodate eight narrow-body aircraft at a time, several VIP flights had to be redirected to nearby airports in Gorakhpur, Kanpur, Lucknow, and Delhi for parking, as indicated by the tracking data.
Notably, a group of Bollywood celebrities was transported in an Embraer EMB-135BJ Legacy aircraft with the registration number VT-VSS, operated by Delhi-based VRS Ventures Limited. This business jet has a capacity to carry 14 passengers.
The Airports Authority of India (AAI) reportedly reached out to a dozen airports within a 1,000-km range, requesting parking spaces for jets that would be making a night halt after dropping off dignitaries in Ayodhya. As per reports, the authority identified 12 airports across five states — UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttarakhand — for this purpose.
The significant turnout of private jets at the Ayodhya airport underscored the widespread interest and importance attached to the momentous occasion of the Ram Temple inauguration, drawing luminaries from various spheres to witness and partake in the historic event.
