Khajuraho Airport has been named the best in India despite having no commercial flights for two months.
The ranking is based on the 2026 National Service and Customer Satisfaction Index survey by the Airports Authority of India, which assessed passenger facilities, cleanliness, security and service quality rather than flight volume.
Commercial flights have been suspended through July and August for runway and other technical works, with services expected to resume around October.
Before the suspension, Khajuraho Airport operated only two scheduled flights, to Delhi and Varanasi.
Airport director Santosh Singh said the ranking “reflected the hard work of the entire airport staff and the trust of passengers,” noting the survey was conducted while flights were still active.
Singh said commercial services would resume once the runway work was completed.
Bhopal’s Raja Bhoj Airport came third nationally in the survey, and Khajuraho had also topped the AAI’s customer satisfaction survey in December 2025.
Residents have questioned the contradiction between the airport’s top ranking and the total absence of flights this July and August.
The airport’s runway is 2,286 metres long and 45 metres wide, and its terminal building, opened in January 2016, cost roughly Rs 90 crore to construct.
The airport mainly serves travellers visiting the nearby Khajuraho Group of Monuments, a UNESCO World Heritage Site renowned for its medieval temple carvings.
The temples, constructed between the 9th and 12th centuries under the Chandela dynasty, are among central India’s most visited heritage attractions.
The Airports Authority of India conducts its National Service and Customer Satisfaction Index survey periodically to benchmark airports on the quality of the passenger experience they offer, independent of how much traffic they handle.
Khajuraho is best known internationally for its UNESCO World Heritage-listed group of temples, and the airport primarily serves tourists visiting the site as well as pilgrims and business travellers to the region.
(Image: Photo by Z thomas, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)
