Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, is a new airport near Shamshabad, about 22 km (14 mi) from the city of Hyderabad, in India. It is presently the largest airport in India[citation needed]. It is the only International Airport in Andhra Pradesh. It is named after former Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi. The airport has replaced the former international airport of the city, Begumpet Airport. The commercial operations began at 12:01 am on March 23, 2008. Rajiv Gandhi International Airport is the first greenfield airport in India and is the second public-private partnership venture in the Indian airports, the first being the Cochin International Airport. It is a hub for Jet Lite, Kingfisher Airlines, SpiceJet and IndiGo Airlines. It also acts as a focus city for Air India, Jet Airways and Deccan.
Hyderabad International Airport has been ranked at the 10th spot much ahead of Chennai International Airport (14th Spot) and New Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport (25th spot) in an official statistics regarding the "Top 25 fastest growing airports 2007" worldwide with a 26.1% increase in the passenger traffic, according to the World Airport Traffic 2007 report released by the Airports Council International[1].
