Pakyong Airport
airport in Sikkim, India
Pakyong Airport (IATA: PYG, ICAO: VEPY) is a domestic airport serving Gangtok, the capital of Sikkim, India. It has been operationalized under the UDAN Scheme of the Government of India. Spread over 201 acres (81 ha), the airport is located at Pakyong, about 31 km (22 mi) south of Gangtok. At 4,646 ft, the airport is one of the five highest airports in India. It is also the first greenfield airport constructed in Northeast India, the 100th operational airport in India, and the only airport in the state of Sikkim.
Inaugurated on 24 September 2018 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, commercial flight operations started 4 October 2018. Upon its opening, CNN described it as one of the most scenic airports in the world. However, commercial flights have been disrupted due to known weather conditions, being originally planned and designed as a Visual Flight Rules (VFR) Airport. Due to these visibility issues along with agitation from the local villagers who were displaced and strip area issues, the airport's only commercial passenger airline SpiceJet suspended flight operations to the airport effective 1 June 2019. After a suspension of 19 months, flight operations resumed on 23 January 2021, following the establishment of Required Navigation Performance (RNP) approaches.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Pakyong Airport” as airport in Sikkim, India. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as airport in Sikkim, India. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7126092. Authority coordinates are 27.228, 88.588. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2018, 2019 and 2021.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Pakyong Airport”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Pakyong Airport primary sources, Pakyong Airport archive and Pakyong research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Pakyong Airport”?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Pakyong Airport” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.