About Tirupati Airport in Renigunta, Tirupati

Tirupati International Airport , is a public International airport located at Renigunta, a suburb of Tirupati in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. The airport is located 14km away from Tirupati and 39km from Venkateswara Temple, Tirumala.HistoryTirupati airport was established in the year 1976. Then Prime Minister of India, P. V. Narasimha Rao laid the foundation stone for a new terminal building, run way expansion and a radio tower in 1993 at a cost of. The upgraded airport was opened for passenger traffic in 1999 by then Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee.Garuda TerminalA new integrated terminal referred to as Garuda Terminal was constructed besides the existing domestic terminal in an area of at a cost of. The terminal can handle 500 domestic and 200 International Passengers at a time. The foundation stone for the Terminal was laid in October 2010 by Manmohan Singh, the then Prime Minister of India. Construction began in 2012, and the terminal was inaugurated on 22 October 2015 by present Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi. There are plans to upgrade Tirupati Airport to International status.Accidents and incidentsOn 17 September 2016, SpiceJet Flight 1047, operating on a scheduled flight from Hyderabad to Tirupati, skidded off the runway after landing, into a sandpit due to technical issues. All of the 60 passengers that were on board the flight were safe.