Gujarat's Govardhanpur Airport aka Jamnagar Airport, which is just 10 km from Jamnagar city, is a small domestic airport and an Indian Air Force base.
However, in the past few days, the biggest names in the world from Rihanna, Cristiano Ronaldo, Mark Zuckerberg and major Bollywood celebs have been landing at the airport to attend Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani's son Anant Ambani's pre-wedding bash. How did the little-known airport handle the high-profile traffic and manage the required arrangements?
An international airport for 10 days
Interestingly, the airport was permitted to welcome international flights from February 25 to March 5, to allow Ambani-Merchant families to fly in their global guests. A Custom, Immigration and Quarantine facility was set up and the Indian Air Force even permitted access to its technical area as part of the wedding!
Airport officials explained that while a maximum of six small aircraft are only accommodated in the civilian area of Jamnagar airport, Friday (March 1) saw around 140 aircraft arriving and departing from there. The size of Airport Authority of India's passenger building was expanded from 475 sq m to 900 sq m. This helped it to accommodate around 360 passengers as opposed to the usual 180.
Manpower arrangements
The airport also got its toilets renovated, with even paintings installed in them and around 35 housekeeping staff were added to the existing 16. The security personnel and ground handling agencies were doubled, and the IAF deployed more military personnel to handle the traffic.
