📋 Table of Contents

🏢 1. Terminal, Layout & the Military-Airfield Reality

IXC has one terminal, opened in October 2015 and inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 11 September 2015. Built by Larsen & Toubro, it covers about 53,000 square metres and was designed to hold roughly 1,600 passengers at peak — domestic and international processing under one roof, which is convenient because the international operation is small enough that a separate building would sit empty most of the day. The terminal replaced a cramped older civil enclave that had handled Chandigarh’s flights since Indian Airlines began Delhi services in the 1970s.

The detail that defines the airport is the one that doesn’t appear on the departure board: you are using a military base. IXC is a civil enclave within IAF Station Chandigarh, sharing the single runway (11/29, about 3,170 m / 10,400 ft of usable length, ILS-equipped and capable of wide-body operations) with Indian Air Force flying. Since 10 April 2019 the airport has been cleared for 24-hour operations, but in practice civilian slots are scheduled — there is no rolling all-night civilian flow, and timings cluster around airline demand rather than running flat across the clock.

The military character carries a hard rule that trips up visitors every week. As of the 2025 DGCA directive, reaffirmed into 2026, IXC sits on the list of defence and dual-use airports where passenger photography and videography are prohibited at and near the airport. That means no terminal-frontage photos, no runway shots through the window on the apron, no “wheels-up” video. The list also covers Srinagar, Jammu, Leh, Amritsar, Pune, Goa (Dabolim) and others — Chandigarh is named explicitly. Treat your phone camera as switched off from the moment the cab turns into the airport road until you are well clear after landing. Enforcement is real and the legal framing is security law, not airport bylaw.

The terminal itself is modern and uncomplicated. Check-in islands face the entrance, security sits behind them, and a single departures concourse feeds the gates. Because the building was sized for growth, it rarely feels crowded outside the early-morning domestic bank. Trolleys are free, the washrooms are kept up, and signage is bilingual Hindi–English. There is no airport hotel inside the terminal; the nearest branded hotels — including a JW Marriott — sit a short drive out toward Mohali and the city, not within the secure zone.

Practical orientation: arrivals and departures are on different levels, the prepaid-taxi and app-cab pickup points are outside arrivals, and the CTU shuttle stops on the access road. Give yourself the standard two hours for a domestic departure and three for one of the Gulf flights — the international flow is thin but the security and immigration lanes are sized for the small volume, so a single delayed flight can back things up.

A note on capacity and the airport’s trajectory: IXC handled about 4.15 million passengers in the financial year to March 2025, up roughly 11.5% on the year before, almost all of it domestic. That growth is why the terminal — generous when it opened — no longer feels oversized at the 6am IndiGo bank, when half a dozen departures push out within an hour and the single security screening line is the bottleneck. Off-peak, mid-morning or early afternoon, it’s a calm building. The international apron sees only the handful of daily Gulf rotations, so immigration on arrival is quick unless two flights land close together. There is no second terminal and no published timeline for one; the runway upgrade to handle wide-bodies (CAT-I ILS on runway 11, CAT-II on runway 29) was the last major infrastructure change, completed before the current terminal era.

One quirk of the shared field worth knowing if you’re a nervous flyer: you may sit on the ground longer than expected while military movements clear, and you will be told to keep window shades down and cameras away during taxi, take-off and landing. That’s standard for India’s joint civil-military airports and not a sign of anything wrong.

🛂 2. Visa, Currency, Fees & Health

Entry system — India’s e-Visa. Almost every foreign visitor needs a visa arranged before arrival; India runs no general visa-on-arrival. The standard route is the e-Tourist Visa, applied for online at the government portal indianvisaonline.gov.in (the only official site — the field is crowded with look-alike commercial agents who add a markup). Three tourist tiers exist:

• 30-day e-Tourist Visa — single entry, valid up to 6 months from grant of the electronic travel authorisation. Fee US$25 for most of the year, dropped to US$10 during April–June.
• 1-year e-Tourist Visa — multiple entry, maximum 180 days’ stay per calendar year. Fee US$40.
• 5-year e-Tourist Visa — multiple entry, same 180-days-per-year stay cap. Fee US$80.

Add a bank transaction surcharge of about 3% on the fee. Apply at least four days before travel; the portal won’t process last-minute submissions, and the e-Visa is issued as an electronic travel authorisation you print and carry — it’s checked against your passport at immigration. Nationals of Nepal and Bhutan enter visa-free; Pakistani nationals and people of Pakistani origin are excluded from the e-Visa channel and must use the regular paper-visa process. Everyone else who isn’t e-Visa-eligible — or who wants a longer or different visa class — applies for a paper visa at an Indian mission, which takes longer, costs more and requires an in-person or courier submission. For a straightforward tourist trip the e-Visa is the route; the paper visa is the fallback. One thing that has gone away: the Air Suvidha online health-declaration form, mandatory during the pandemic years, is no longer required — don’t waste time hunting for it. Keep a printed copy of your e-Visa and your onward ticket handy at immigration; officers occasionally ask to see proof of departure.

Currency. India uses the Indian rupee (INR, written ₹). As of late May 2026, roughly ₹95 to the US dollar and ₹111 to the euro — verify on the day, the rupee has drifted weaker through 2025–26. Notes in circulation run ₹10, ₹20, ₹50, ₹100, ₹200, ₹500; coins to ₹20. The ₹2,000 note was withdrawn from circulation in 2023, so the ₹500 is now the top denomination you’ll handle. There is no parallel or black-market exchange to chase here — the rupee is partially convertible and trades at the official rate. The real catch is the export rule: the rupee is technically not meant to leave the country, and there’s a cap (₹25,000 for residents, effectively nil for foreign tourists) on carrying notes out. Spend down or convert your rupees before you fly home; you can’t reliably change them abroad. Card acceptance is wide in cities, UPI app-payments are everywhere, and ATMs at the terminal and in Sector 17 dispense rupees at the official rate, usually a better deal than an airport money-changer.

Fees. There is no separate arrival or departure tax to pay in cash — passenger charges are baked into the ticket. No tourist permit is needed for Chandigarh, Punjab, Haryana or the routes up to Shimla and Manali; the inner-line/protected-area permits that apply elsewhere in India don’t touch this corridor.

Health. No vaccination is required to enter India from most countries. The one mandatory rule: if you are arriving from, or have transited, a yellow-fever-risk country, you must show a valid yellow-fever vaccination certificate, taken at least 10 days before arrival — without it you risk quarantine. Coming straight from Europe, the Gulf or North America, this doesn’t apply. Beyond that, the standard India advice holds: don’t drink the tap water (covered below), and carry a basic stomach-upset kit, because the food is the adventure and your gut may disagree with it for a day or two.

🚆 3. Transport — Every Way Into the City

The airport sits in Mohali, southwest of Chandigarh proper, about 12 km from the Sector 17 centre as the crow flies and roughly 19 km by the road most cabs take. Budget 20–30 minutes to Sector 17 in normal traffic, longer in the morning and evening peaks. The catchment is a tri-city sprawl — Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula — so where you’re headed changes the fare more than the headline “airport to city” number suggests.

App cabs (Uber and Ola). Both operate at IXC, with pickup from the marked area outside arrivals. This is the option most independent travellers default to, and usually the cheapest door-to-door: expect roughly ₹250–450 to Sector 17 or central Chandigarh depending on car class and surge, more to Panchkula (east, across the city) and similar or slightly less to central Mohali (nearer the airport). Surge pricing bites at the early-morning arrival bank and in the rain. Confirm the car and plate before you get in, and use the in-app fare rather than negotiating.

Prepaid taxi. A prepaid taxi counter operates in arrivals — you pay a fixed fare at the desk and hand the slip to the driver, which removes the haggling and is the safer bet if you’ve never used an app cab in India. Fares are zone-based and broadly in line with the apps; the short hop to the ISBT-43 bus station runs around ₹189, with city-centre and Panchkula fares scaling up from there. The fixed price is the point: you know the number before you sit down.

Auto-rickshaw. Three-wheelers wait outside and will run you into the city for roughly ₹200–350, agreed up front (meters are rarely used here). It’s the cheapest motorised option and fine for a solo traveller with a backpack, but cramped with luggage and exposed to the weather and the road noise. Fix the fare before you climb in.

CTU Airport Shuttle — Route 38AS. The Chandigarh Transport Undertaking runs an air-conditioned shuttle, Route 38AS, at a flat ₹100, linking the airport to the ISBT-17 (Sector 17) and ISBT-43 (Sector 43) bus stations, stopping at Sohana en route. Service runs from roughly 04:20 to 23:40, but frequency is modest — this is a scheduled shuttle, not a turn-up-and-go metro. For a budget traveller heading to the Sector 17 or Sector 43 hub (and from Sector 43, onward buses to Shimla, Manali, Delhi and beyond), it’s the cheapest sensible route into the network. Check the current timetable on the CTU site before you rely on a specific departure.

Onward to the hills. There is no metro or rail link at the airport itself; the nearest railway station is Chandigarh Junction in the city. For the mountains, the pattern is: cab or shuttle to ISBT-43, then a Himachal Pradesh or CTU coach to Shimla (about 3–3.5 hours) or Manali (8–9 hours overnight). The scenic Kalka–Shimla toy train starts at Kalka, about 30 km from the airport — cab to Kalka, board there (see the Insider section).

Comparison, plainly: the app cab wins on speed and door-to-door convenience; the prepaid taxi wins on certainty if you don’t want to deal with apps; the ₹100 shuttle wins on price if you’re flexible on timing and headed to a bus-station hub; the auto-rickshaw is the cheap-and-cheerful middle for light luggage. For most arriving visitors with bags, an app cab or prepaid taxi to the hotel is the right call.

🛋️ 4. Lounges — What You Get and What’s Missing

IXC keeps it simple: the Primus Lounge operates in both the domestic and the international parts of the terminal, and both accept Priority Pass. The domestic Primus runs roughly 04:00–23:00; the international-side Primus tracks the limited Gulf-flight schedule and posts longer nominal hours. Beyond Priority Pass, the Primus lounges take the usual Indian credit-card lounge programmes (the various bank cards that bundle lounge access through DreamFolks and similar aggregators) and walk-in paid entry. Expect the standard Indian-lounge offer: hot Indian and continental buffet, bar, decent seating, washrooms, charging, Wi-Fi.

What’s worth flagging is the absence. There is no Plaza Premium lounge here any more — the Plaza Premium operation at IXC has closed, so older guides and apps that still list it are out of date. And there is nothing in the American Express Centurion / airline flagship tier — no Centurion Lounge, no Air India Maharaja Lounge, no Emirates or Etihad branded lounge despite the Gulf routes (those carriers don’t fly IXC; the Dubai/Abu Dhabi/Sharjah flights are operated by IndiGo and Air India Express, which use the shared Primus facility or none). If you hold a premium Amex or expect a marquee carrier lounge, recalibrate: at IXC, Primus is the ceiling. For a domestic connection that’s perfectly adequate; for a long international wait, it’s serviceable rather than special.

🍽️ 5. Food & Duty-Free — Punjabi Plates and the Town Comparison

This is Punjab, and the regional food is the reason to be hungry on arrival rather than departure. The dishes to know: butter chicken (murgh makhani — invented in this part of north India), Amritsari kulcha (a stuffed, crisped flatbread baked with potato or paneer, served with chana and a dollop of butter), chole bhature (spiced chickpeas with a puffed fried bread), sarson da saag with makki di roti (mustard greens with cornflour flatbread, a winter staple), and lassi (sweet or salted yoghurt drink, served in a steel tumbler the size of a small bucket).

A word on the sweets, because Punjab takes them seriously: jalebi (orange spirals of fried batter soaked in syrup, best eaten warm and dripping), pinni (a dense winter ball of flour, ghee and nuts), and the ubiquitous gulab jamun are standard, and a good mithai shop will have a counter of two dozen kinds. If you want one thing to carry onto the plane, warm jalebi from a town sweet shop costs around ₹40–60 for a portion and travels better than it has any right to.

Airport vs town — the price gap is real. Inside the terminal, food is the usual captive-audience markup: a coffee-chain latte runs ₹250–350, a sandwich or a plate of the day ₹400–600, a bottle of water ₹50–100 against a street price of ₹20. The food court and a few counters cover the basics — Indian thalis, a coffee chain, fast food — but it’s transit fuel, not a meal worth planning around. In town, the same money goes much further. In Sector 17, the city’s central shopping plaza, Brothers Amritsari Kulcha Hub does the namesake dish for roughly ₹100–200 a head, and Sindhi Sweets (a long-running Sector 17 C institution, open from about 9:30am to 10pm) covers chaat, sweets and full Punjabi plates at a fraction of terminal prices. A proper sit-down Punjabi meal in the city — butter chicken, dal makhani, rotis, the works — lands around ₹400–700 for two at a mid-range place, less than two airport sandwiches.

The honest verdict on eating at the airport: don’t plan to. The terminal food is fine for a coffee and a samosa while you wait, but Chandigarh and the surrounding tri-city have some of the best Punjabi cooking in India at a quarter of the price a kilometre or two outside the gate. If your schedule allows, eat in town before you head to the airport, or after you land — not in the departures hall.

A caution on “airport restaurants” you’ll see listed online: places like the café at the JW Marriott or Swagath Restaurant are near the airport (a couple of kilometres out toward the city), not inside the secure terminal. Useful if you have a long pre-flight window and a cab, irrelevant once you’re through security.

Duty-free at IXC is modest, reflecting the small international operation — a single arrivals/departures shop carrying the standard spirits, tobacco, perfume and confectionery, priced competitively against Indian retail duty. India’s duty-free allowance for incoming travellers covers alcohol and a limited tobacco quota, and the broader 2026 baggage rules moved to a flat 10% customs duty on dutiable goods above the free allowance — check the current limits before you load up, because they change and the green-channel rules are enforced. For take-home that’s actually local rather than global-brand: Indian tea (Darjeeling, Assam) and spices bought in town beat anything in the duty-free shop, and cost a fraction. If you’re flying out on a Gulf route and connecting onward, remember that the Sharjah, Dubai and Abu Dhabi duty-free shops downstream are far larger than anything at IXC, so there’s little reason to buy here.

💡 6. Insider Tips — The City and the Himalayan Day-Trips

Chandigarh is the rare Indian city you can read like a diagram, because it was designed as one. Le Corbusier laid it out from 1951 on a numbered grid of self-contained sectors, and the civic core — the Capitol Complex, with the High Court, Secretariat, Legislative Assembly and the sculptural Open Hand Monument (“open to give, open to receive,” the city’s emblem) — was inscribed by UNESCO in 2016 as part of the transnational listing of Le Corbusier’s work. Visiting the Capitol Complex requires joining a free guided tour (passport ID needed; book or check timings via Chandigarh Tourism), because the buildings are working government offices. It’s about 10–15 km from the airport, comfortably done on a layover of six hours or more.

Two more city sights cluster nearby. The Rock Garden, Nek Chand’s 16-hectare sculpture labyrinth built secretly from industrial and household waste starting in 1957, sits about 24 km from the airport; entry is a token ₹30 for adults, ₹10 for children. Next to it, Sukhna Lake is the city’s reservoir-turned-promenade, free to walk. The Rose Garden (Zakir Hussain Rose Garden) adds a third, seasonal in late winter. On a 5–6 hour layover with a prepaid taxi, Rock Garden + Sukhna Lake is a realistic loop; the Capitol Complex needs the tour timing to line up, so check first. Remember the photography rule applies only at the airport — the city sights are freely photographable.

Chandigarh’s grid is worth understanding as you move around, because it explains why nothing feels like a typical Indian old town. Le Corbusier and his team divided the city into numbered sectors of roughly 800 by 1,200 metres, each meant to be self-sufficient with its own market, school and green space, separated by fast roads. Sector 17 is the commercial heart — a pedestrian plaza of concrete arcades that was radical in the 1950s and now reads as period modernism. Sector 1 holds the Capitol Complex. The Rock Garden and Sukhna Lake sit at the city’s northeast edge below the Shivalik foothills. The system means addresses are logical (sector, then block) and a cab driver can find anything from a sector number, but it also means the city sprawls and you’ll spend on taxis between sectors — there’s no dense walkable core beyond Sector 17.

The Himalayan run — and the honest layover math. This is what makes Chandigarh’s airport interesting, and where most “things to do near the airport” lists lie by omission about distance:

• Shimla — the old colonial hill-station capital, 112–115 km, 3–3.5 hours by road one-way. A stay destination, not a layover trip: round-trip driving alone is 6–7 hours, before you’ve seen anything. Only viable if Chandigarh is your base for a night or more.
• Kalka–Shimla toy train — the narrow-gauge railway built in 1903, a UNESCO World Heritage line, climbs ~96 km from Kalka (about 30 km / 45 min from the airport) to Shimla in roughly 5–6 hours through 100-plus tunnels. Magnificent and slow — a full-day experience minimum, not a layover option.
• Kasauli — a small, quiet hill town, 58 km, 1.5–2 hours one-way. The nearest “real mountains” to the airport. Borderline doable as a long day-trip on an 8-hour-plus layover with a private cab, but tight; better as a one-night escape.
• Manali — 307 km, 8–9 hours by road, usually overnight. Firmly a multi-day destination; do not attempt on a layover.

Put plainly: from IXC you can reach the lower Himalaya in an afternoon’s drive, but none of the hill stations works as a between-flights excursion. The city sights do; the mountains need you to be staying. If your trip is a connection through IXC with a few hours to kill, do the Rock Garden and Sukhna Lake and leave Shimla for a proper visit.

🔧 7. Practical Notes — Connectivity, Currency, Safety

Wi-Fi and SIM. The terminal offers free Wi-Fi, typically via an OTP sent to your phone — which is the catch for a just-landed foreigner without an Indian number. Buy a tourist SIM on arrival: Airtel and Jio are the two to consider, with prepaid tourist plans around ₹299–500 (about US$3.50–6) for 28–30 days of generous daily data, unlimited local calls and some SMS. Airtel has the smoother foreigner-onboarding process at major airports; activation can take a few hours and needs your passport and visa. eSIM options exist if your phone supports them and you want connectivity the moment you land. Coverage in Chandigarh and across the Shimla road is solid; it thins in the deeper valleys toward Manali.

Currency, again, because it matters. Use ATMs or pay by card/UPI rather than airport money-changers for the better rate. Keep small notes (₹10–100) for autos, tips and street food — drivers and vendors rarely break a ₹500. Spend your rupees down before departure; you can’t take meaningful cash out or change it abroad.

Tipping. Not obligatory but expected in service settings: ₹30–50 a bag for porters, ₹50–100 a night for hotel housekeeping at mid-range places (more at luxury), and rounding up or ~10% at restaurants that don’t already add a service charge. Cab and auto drivers don’t expect a tip beyond rounding up.

Safety and scams. Chandigarh is one of India’s calmer, cleaner cities — planned, comparatively low-crime, easy to navigate. The usual India caveats still apply: agree auto fares before riding, ignore unsolicited “the hotel is closed, let me take you to a better one” steering, and use the in-app price for cabs. Petty crime is low by Indian-city standards but keep an eye on bags in the Sector 17 plaza crowds. The airport’s military setting means a visible security presence and strict ID checks — have your passport and boarding pass ready, and keep the camera away.

Water and health. Tap water is not safe for visitors anywhere in this region — stick to sealed bottled water (Bisleri, Kinley, Aquafina are the reliable brands; check the seal), and use it for brushing teeth too. Avoid ice from uncertain sources and raw salads at cheaper eateries until your stomach has settled. A few days’ caution up front beats losing a hill-station day to a bad meal.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

📊 2026 Summary Data Table