AAI Transfers Babatpur Airport Director; Santosh Dhoke to Take Charge

The Airports Authority of India has transferred the director of Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport at Babatpur and named a Pune-based officer to take charge at Varanasi.

Under the order reported in the current window, outgoing director Puneet Gupta is moving to Bhubaneswar airport. Santosh Dhoke, who has been serving as Airport Director Grade-II at Pune, is appointed the new director at Varanasi. AAI’s transfer language directs the officers to assume their new charges within the stipulated period set in the order.

Babatpur is the city’s civil aviation gateway for pilgrimage and business traffic into eastern Uttar Pradesh. The director’s office oversees day-to-day terminal operations, coordination with airlines and security agencies, and progress on capacity works that have been discussed as passenger numbers rise. Gupta’s tenure saw expansion and passenger-facility proposals move through the usual planning pipeline; those files will now sit with the incoming director once charge is handed over.

Dhoke’s immediate tasks, once he takes charge, will centre on continuity: keeping departure and arrival banks smooth through the festive travel stretch, coordinating with city traffic police on the airport road, and reviewing ongoing terminal and apron-side works. None of that requires inventing a new master plan on day one; airport handovers in the AAI system typically begin with a briefing on live projects, concessionaires and seasonal traffic peaks.

Passengers will not see a change in check-in counters or security lanes simply because the director’s nameplate changes. What can shift over months is the pace of works already sanctioned — queue design, toilet and waiting-area upgrades, and any phased terminal expansion that depends on AAI and airline coordination. Local taxi and app-cab operators who depend on arrival banks will watch for any temporary diversion during construction peaks, as they do after every monsoon.

The desk is recording this as a straight administrative transfer: named outgoing and incoming officers, named origin and destination airports, and the AAI order as the basis. No political reading is attached. Confirmation of the exact charge-assumption date will follow when both officers complete joining formalities and AAI’s public airport listing updates.

Until then, flight operations at Babatpur continue under the existing roster. Travellers should keep using the usual airline and AAI channels for delays, while the city’s desk notes the leadership change at the top of the airport administration.

Airlines operating morning and evening banks into Babatpur coordinate slots through the airport operations room; a director-level handover rarely changes published timings overnight, but it does reset the escalation path when a monsoon squall or equipment snag needs a quick decision. Ground handlers and CISF units keep their own chain of command; the director’s role is coordination across those partners and with the city administration on road access during peak arrival pulses.

For Banaras readers the practical takeaway is simple. The name on the airport’s administrative letterhead is changing from Puneet Gupta to Santosh Dhoke under an AAI order, Gupta moves to Bhubaneswar, and Dhoke comes from Pune’s Grade-II director post. Flight schedules, security checks and baggage belts continue as notified by airlines and AAI until any separate operational circular says otherwise.