Lucknow, June 16 -- Commercial flight operations at the Noida International Airport officially began on Monday with the launch of the first direct air corridor between Lucknow and Noida, less than five years after Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the project at Jewar on November 25, 2021. The inaugural IndiGo flight (6E 2278) departed from Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport, Lucknow, at 7.55am and landed at Jewar at 8.45am. According to airport officials, the new corridor will drastically improve connectivity between Noida and Lucknow, offering a faster and more efficient alternative to road travel and reducing travel time between the state capital and the National Capital Region to around one hour. The Airbus A320 flight carried 182 passengers, including actor and entrepreneur Gul Panag. Onboard were representatives of around 75 leading business families from Noida, spanning real estate, IT, manufacturing, healthcare, education, hospitality, and infrastructure. The return flight at 10.30am carried around 170 farmers from Jewar whose land was acquired for the airport project. They later met chief minister Yogi Adityanath in the state capital, marking a symbolic recognition of their role in the project. The airport is a major greenfield development built under a PPP model. It is operated by Yamuna International Airport Pvt. Ltd., a subsidiary of Zurich Airport International AG, with construction by Tata Projects Limited. Located about 70-72 km from Delhi, it is being developed in four phases with a total investment of Rs.29,561 crore and a 40-year concession period from 2021 to 2061. In the first phase around Rs 11000 crore are spent. Phase 1 inaugurated by PM Narendra Modi on March 28, 2026, has a capacity of 12 million passengers annually. It features a 3,900-metre runway, a 100,000-square-metre terminal, and an initial cargo capacity of 2.5 lakh metric tonnes per year. On the first operational day, in addition to Lucknow-Jewar services, an IndiGo flight also operated between Jewar and Bengaluru. A ceremonial flag-off event was held at Lucknow airport. Regular scheduled services on the Lucknow-Noida route are expected to begin from July 1, opening a key domestic aviation link for business, tourism, and economic growth across Uttar Pradesh....