The Ministry of Civil Aviation is reportedly looking forward to develop the Nagarjunasagar airport at Guntur in Andhra Pradesh.

This comes soon after the Centre came up with its Regional Air Connectivity Scheme to develop mini-airports across the country. Following the Centre's announcement, the state government had earlier announced that the airports at Nagarjunasagar and Donakonda would be upgraded into greenfield ones.

The Nagarjunasagar airport was reportedly built in the 1960s, and was spread across 90 acres.

According to Deccan Chronicle, the YS Rajasekhar Reddy government gave the Nagarjunasagar airport to a flight training institute in in 2007, but cancelled the lease later, as the institute could not provide proper training to the pilots.

Now, the Airports Authority of India and  officials of the Civil Aviation Ministry have begun making inquiries about land availability at Nagarjunasagar.

Earlier, the Centre gave approval for three new airport projects at Bhogapuram and Dagadarthi, both in Nellore district, and Orvakallu in Kurnool district in Andhra Pradesh that are estimated to cost Rs 2,376 crore.

According to the Times of India, the Centre will bear 80% of the viability gap funding under the scheme, while the state will bear the remaining 20%.

The scheme would reportedly provide various incentives to airlines and airports, like the fare would be capped at Rs 2,500 for one-hour flights.

In 2015, The Hindu reported that  the government claimed that Gannavaram airport had registered a traffic growth of 101.5% against the national average of 18.1%.

In 2016, the state government proposed new greenfield airports to be developed at Nagarjuna Sagar (Guntur), Bhogapuram (Vizianagaram district), Dagadarti (Nellore district) Urakallu (Kurnool district) and Dona Konda (Prakasam district).

The government reportedly claimed that air traffic in the state had gone up by 59%.