Claim: Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed that before 2014, all airports in India were named after “one family”, referring to the Nehru-Gandhi family.
Verdict: False
What’s the claim?
While inaugurating the Alluri Sitarama Raju International Airport at Bhogapuram in Andhra Pradesh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that earlier airports were named after “one family” and that the NDA government changed this practice after coming to power.
The statement implied that airports across India predominantly carried the names of members of the Nehru-Gandhi family.
What do the facts show?
Available records do not support the Prime Minister’s claim.
India has 166 operational airports, but only two are named after members of the Gandhi family:
- Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi
- Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Hyderabad
No airport in India is named after Jawaharlal Nehru.
How were other airports named?
Many airports have retained their original geographical names or have been named after prominent national and regional leaders.
Examples include:
- Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport – Ahmedabad
- Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport – Varanasi
- Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport – Kolkata
- Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport – Nagpur
- Jay Prakash Narayan International Airport – Patna
- Alluri Sitarama Raju International Airport – Bhogapuram
- Maharishi Valmiki International Airport – Ayodhya
- Sant Ravidas Airport – Varanasi (airport named after the saint)
Many others continue to use city or regional names such as Chennai, Kochi, Bengaluru, Jaipur, Pune and Goa.
What about India’s earliest airports?
Several major airports existed long before Independence or before the Congress governments named airports after former Prime Ministers.
Examples include:
- Juhu Aerodrome (Mumbai) – 1928
- Dum Dum Airport (Kolkata) – 1924
- Safdarjung Airport (Delhi) – originally Willingdon Airfield during British rule, later renamed after Safdarjung
- Chennai Airport – originally Madras Airport; its terminals are named after C. N. Annadurai and K. Kamaraj
- Begumpet Airport (Hyderabad) – named after the locality before the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport replaced it in 2008
These airports were not named after members of the Nehru-Gandhi family.
Why did the claim surface?
The remark came during the inauguration of the new airport at Bhogapuram, which the Centre named after freedom fighter Alluri Sitarama Raju. The Prime Minister highlighted the NDA government’s practice of naming public infrastructure after regional icons and national figures instead of members of one political family.
However, the historical record does not support the assertion that “all airports” were previously named after that family.
Conclusion By Factcheck India
The claim that all airports in India were named after one family before 2014 is false. Only two airports are named after members of the Gandhi family—Indira Gandhi International Airport and Rajiv Gandhi International Airport. The vast majority of India’s airports either retain geographical names or are named after a wide range of national leaders, freedom fighters, saints and regional icons. Therefore, the Prime Minister’s statement exaggerates the historical naming pattern and is not supported by the available evidence.