📋 Table of Contents

🏢 1. Terminals, the 2024 Move and the Military-Field Reality

For most of its passenger life, Pune ran out of a cramped 1990s-era building — the structure now called Terminal 1, originally 6,500 m² with two extensions tacked on in 2008. It was undersized the day it was finished. By the early 2020s, an airport handling more than ten million passengers a year was processing them through a shed.

Terminal 2, the “New Integrated Terminal,” fixed the worst of it. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated it on 10 March 2024, and it opened to actual passengers on 14 July 2024, with Air India and Air India Express flying the first departures to Delhi and Bhubaneswar. It covers roughly 52,000 m² — eight times the original T1 footprint — and is built for over 9 million passengers a year, with 34 check-in counters, 25 self-check-in kiosks and five aerobridges. That last number matters at Pune, where for years almost every flight meant a bus to a remote stand and a walk up airstairs in 38°C heat. T2 still uses some remote stands at peak, but the aerobridge count finally makes jetbridge boarding the default rather than the exception.

The split as of 2026: T1 handles domestic, T2 is the newer building intended to carry international traffic and the growing domestic load. Signage and operations have been shifting between the two since the handover, so confirm your terminal on your boarding pass and at the entrance — a Pune flight that was T1 last year may be T2 now. They are within walking distance, not separate complexes, but allow a few minutes if you arrive at the wrong door.

🎖️ The Air Force Field

Pune is a shared field. The single runway (10/28, 2,539 m of asphalt) belongs to the Indian Air Force’s Lohegaon station, and the IAF runs the air traffic control. Two things follow. First, the runway is short by big-city standards — 2,539 m caps the aircraft types and limits fully-loaded long-haul departures, which is part of why widebody international service has been slow to arrive. Second, military movements take priority, and the airport has periodically closed for IAF runway work and fighter operations. An undercarriage failure or a hard landing by a military jet can — and has — shut the runway for hours with no civilian recourse.

The recurring flashpoint is night flying. AAI wants more night slots to grow the schedule; the IAF guards its night-training and maintenance windows. The current arrangement permits civilian night landings on a temporary understanding rather than a permanent right, and past plans have included overnight runway recarpeting (roughly 8pm to 8am) that forced airlines to reschedule. Translation for a passenger: late-evening and red-eye flights exist, but they are the first to move when the Air Force needs the field. Build a buffer if you have a tight onward connection out of Mumbai or Delhi.

🏗️ The Airport That Keeps Not Opening

Every Pune travel article for a decade has mentioned the replacement. New Pune International Airport, a greenfield project near Purandar southeast of the city, is meant to relieve Lohegaon and give Pune a civilian field free of military scheduling. It is not open. Land acquisition has been the chronic obstacle — farmers in the affected villages have contested the compulsory purchase for years, and the timeline has slipped repeatedly. Plan your 2026 trip around Lohegaon. Purandar is a future-tense airport.

🛂 2. Visa, Currency and Fees — India’s Entry System

India does not do casual entry. Almost every foreign visitor needs a visa arranged before flying — there is no general visa-on-arrival, and visa-free entry is limited to nationals of Nepal and Bhutan. For everyone else the practical route is the e-Visa.

💾 The e-Visa

Apply only through the official government portal, indianvisaonline.gov.in. This is the single most important sentence in this section: there is a large industry of look-alike sites charging a “service fee” of US$40–100 on top of the real cost, and search engines surface them above the official one. The government site processes the same application for the government fee plus a 2.5% bank charge, and nothing else.

The tourist e-Visa comes in three durations:

• 30-day double-entry e-Tourist Visa
• 1-year multiple-entry e-Tourist Visa
• 5-year multiple-entry e-Tourist Visa

Fees vary by nationality and by season. For the April–June 2026 quarter the government ran a promotional reduction: the 30-day fee dropped to US$10 (from the standard US$25), the 1-year to US$40 (from US$80), and the 5-year to US$80. These promotional rates are quarter-specific — outside the promotional window the 30-day fee reverts toward US$25, and a handful of nationalities pay set non-promotional amounts regardless (US passport holders pay US$160 for the long-validity tourist visa; UK holders considerably more). Check the country-specific fee table on the official portal before you apply, because the headline “$10 visa” you may have read about is a seasonal figure, not a permanent one. Apply at least 4–7 days before travel; the e-Visa is processed electronically and emailed as an ETA you print and carry.

There is no Air Suvidha health declaration anymore — that COVID-era online form was discontinued, and you do not need it. Anyone still telling you to fill one out is working from a stale checklist.

Those who can’t use the e-Visa (certain nationalities, certain purposes, journalists, longer stays) need a regular paper visa from an Indian mission before travel. There is no fixing this at Pune immigration on arrival.

💵 The Rupee

The currency is the Indian rupee (INR, symbol ₹). As of May 2026 the rate sits around ₹95 to US$1 and ₹112 to €1, though the rupee has drifted weaker through the year, so treat those as approximate. Notes in circulation run ₹10, ₹20, ₹50, ₹100, ₹200, ₹500; the ₹2,000 note was withdrawn from circulation in 2023 and you will not see one. Coins run ₹1, ₹2, ₹5, ₹10. There is no legal parallel exchange market — the rupee is the only currency you can spend, US dollars and euros are not accepted at shops, and the rate you get is the bank rate.

Mechanics at the airport: ATMs in both terminals dispense rupees on foreign cards and give a better rate than the currency-exchange counters, which build in a wide spread. Withdraw a modest amount of cash at the airport ATM for the taxi and the first day, then rely on UPI/card thereafter — Pune is heavily digital, and even small vendors take QR-code payment. India also restricts importing and exporting rupees: don’t try to bring a large rupee wad in or out, and declare foreign cash over the US$5,000 equivalent (or US$10,000 in cash and instruments combined) on the customs form.

A practical note on the notes themselves: the smaller bills do the daily work. The ₹100 and ₹200 are what you actually pay autorickshaw drivers and stall vendors with; the ₹500 is the largest note in circulation and a vendor will sometimes wave it away early in the morning before they have change. Break large notes at a shop or the airport ATM (which often dispenses ₹500s) into ₹100s when you can. The demonetisation of 2016 — when the old ₹500 and ₹1,000 notes were voided overnight and reissued — and the 2023 withdrawal of the ₹2,000 note are the reason the current note family looks the way it does; nobody at a counter will accept the withdrawn ones.

💉 Health

No vaccination is required for entry from most countries. The exception is the yellow fever certificate, demanded only if you are arriving from or have recently transited a yellow-fever-endemic country (much of sub-Saharan Africa and tropical South America). Coming from Europe, North America, the Gulf or East Asia, you need nothing. Standard travel-health advice for India applies — hepatitis A and typhoid cover, and care with water (see Practical Notes).

🚆 3. Transport — Every Way To and From the Airport

The airport sits about 11 km northeast of central Pune, in Lohegaon. That is close on the map and slow in practice: Pune traffic is dense, and the 11 km to Shivajinagar or the station can take 30 minutes off-peak and well over an hour in the evening crush. Plan by clock, not by distance.

⭐ App Cabs — Ola, Uber, Rapido

The default. Ola, Uber and Rapido all operate at Pune and all now run on government-approved meter rates introduced across the city on 1 May 2025: roughly ₹37 for the first 1.5 km, then ₹25 per km for an AC cab. A run from the airport to central Pune (Shivajinagar, the station, Koregaon Park) typically lands at ₹250–400 depending on exact destination and surge; budget more in the evening peak when surge pricing bites. Rapido also offers cheaper motorbike-taxi rides if you travel light. Book inside the app and meet the driver at the designated pickup zone outside the terminal — the apps fix the fare, which removes the haggling that plagues the cab rank.

A reality check on app cabs in India: driver cancellations are common, especially at surge times, and the wait at the airport pickup point can run 10–20 minutes at peak. If your flight lands late evening, factor that in.

🚖 Prepaid Taxi

Both terminals have a prepaid taxi counter where you pay a fixed fare upfront against your destination and hand the receipt to the driver. The rate is higher than an app cab but the fare is guaranteed, there is no surge, and there is no on-the-meter dispute — useful late at night, with heavy bags, or if you don’t have an Indian SIM to run the apps. Expect roughly ₹400–600 to central Pune. Take the prepaid counter receipt; don’t accept a freelance offer from a tout in the arrivals hall.

🚌 PMPML Bus and the Metro Feeder

PMPML, Pune’s public bus operator, runs services connecting the airport to the city, including air-conditioned electric buses on the airport corridor. The useful one for a visitor is the metro feeder linking the airport to Ramwadi, the eastern terminus of Pune Metro’s Line 1, with the route extended to Pune Railway Station. From Ramwadi the metro runs into the city clear of road traffic. The bus fare is a fraction of a cab — single-digit to low-double-digit rupees — and the metro adds little. This is the cheapest way in by a wide margin, and the only one immune to evening gridlock once you’re on the train, but it is slower door-to-door and awkward with large luggage. (Verify current feeder timings and metro hours before relying on it for a late flight; the feeder schedule has been overhauled more than once.)

Note that Pune Metro does not (yet) run directly to the airport terminal — the feeder bus bridges the gap to Ramwadi station. There is no rail or metro station inside the airport itself.

🛺 Autorickshaws

Pune runs on the auto — the three-wheeler is the city’s workhorse, and you’ll use one for short hops once you’re in town. From the airport they’re less practical than an app cab: not all autos will do the airport run, the meters are a perennial negotiation, and at arrivals you’re better off with the app or prepaid counter. In the city proper, autos are metered (with revised government rates as of May 2025), but the standard advice holds — insist on the meter, or agree the fare before you climb in. For a short city hop they’re cheaper than a cab and faster through traffic than anything on four wheels. Rapido and Ola also let you book an auto through the app, which fixes the fare and removes the haggling entirely; that’s the cleanest way to use one if you don’t speak Marathi or Hindi.

🚗 Car Rental and Self-Drive

Self-drive rental exists in Pune but is not recommended for a first-time visitor. Pune traffic is assertive, lane discipline is notional, and parking in the old city is genuinely difficult. For day-trips to the forts and hill stations a car with a driver — booked through your hotel or an outstation cab app — costs little more than a self-drive once fuel and stress are priced in, and it solves the parking and navigation problem entirely.

🛋️ 4. Lounges — What Your Card Gets You

Pune’s lounge offering is modest and concentrated in the new terminal. There is no separate first-class or premium flagship lounge; what exists is the contract-lounge model, accessible by Priority Pass, DragonPass, eligible credit cards, or a pay-at-the-door walk-in.

The principal lounges are the Elysian Lounge outlets in the New Integrated Terminal (T2), which appear in both the Priority Pass and DragonPass networks. There are multiple Elysian access points in T2 — a ground-floor lounge and a first-floor lounge, both effectively round-the-clock — plus a unit with limited evening hours (roughly 18:00–03:00). Expect the standard Indian contract-lounge package: buffet hot food and snacks, soft and (usually) alcoholic drinks, wifi, washrooms, and seating that gets tight when two big domestic banks of flights coincide. The food is decent Indian-airport standard, not destination dining.

In the older domestic terminal (T1), the lounge has historically operated under the Earth Lounge name, also tied to lounge-membership networks. As traffic migrates to T2, confirm which lounge is live in your terminal at the time you travel — the airport’s lounge footprint has been in flux through the terminal transition.

What’s absent is worth stating plainly: no airline-flagship lounge, no dedicated international business-class lounge of the kind you’d find at Mumbai or Delhi, and no arrivals lounge. If you hold a Priority Pass or DragonPass and have time to kill before a domestic connection, the Elysian is a comfortable enough place to sit out a delay; it is not a reason to arrive early.

🍽️ 5. Food and Duty-Free

Pune is a serious food city, and almost none of that lives at the airport. The terminal has the usual Indian-airport line-up — a coffee chain, a couple of quick-service Indian counters, packaged snacks — at airport prices: a sandwich or a plated meal runs three to four times what the same food costs in town. Eat before you arrive, or wait until you’re in the city.

What to eat once you’re out, all of it Pune/Maharashtra canon:

• Misal pav — a fiery sprouted-bean curry topped with crunchy farsan, served with soft pav bread. Pune’s defining breakfast and the dish to seek out. A plate at a working misal house in the old city runs roughly ₹60–120; the airport will charge multiples for an inferior version.
• Vada pav — the spiced potato fritter in a bun, India’s best street snack, ₹15–30 from a city cart.
• Bhakarwadi — the sweet-and-spicy fried savoury spiral that Pune effectively invented as a packaged snack. Chitale Bandhu Mithaiwale, the Pune institution founded by the Chitale brothers in 1950 and selling bhakarwadi commercially since 1970, is the name to know — its outlets across the city (Bajirao Road being the original) are the standard reference, and a box travels well as a gift. Verify branch locations before a special trip; the brand has many outlets.
• Maharashtrian thali — the full vegetarian platter of bhaji, dal, rice, bhakri, koshimbir and a sweet, the right way to eat a midday meal in the old city.
• Mango in season — Maharashtra’s Alphonso (hapus) mango, roughly March–June, is the regional luxury; you’ll see it everywhere when it’s in.

Two more worth knowing. Mastani — a thick Pune dessert-drink of milk, ice cream, dry fruit and (in season) mango pulp — is a genuine local invention, traced to Pune cold-drink houses from the 1920s onward; the name is variously credited to the Peshwa-era figure Mastani or simply to “masta” (Marathi for great), and the old-city sweet houses are where to try it on a hot afternoon. And shrikhand, the strained-yoghurt sweet flavoured with saffron and cardamom, is a Maharashtrian staple that Chitale Bandhu and others sell by the tub.

Duty-free at PNQ is limited compared with the metros — a modest international arrivals/departures shop for the current Dubai and Singapore services rather than a sprawling hall. For souvenirs and edible gifts, the city beats the terminal on both price and selection: pick up bhakarwadi and chikki (jaggery-and-nut brittle) from a city sweet shop, and Alphonso mango in season from a market rather than airside, where the markup is steep and the selection thin. Edible gifts travel better than the usual terminal tat — a box of Chitale bhakarwadi or chikki keeps for weeks and means more than a fridge magnet.

💡 6. Insider Tips, Attractions and Day-Trips

Pune rewards a stopover better than most Indian IT cities because the history is real and close. A short layover won’t help — see the layover math below — but a free half-day or a full day gives you genuine options.

🏛️ Aga Khan Palace

The single most worthwhile sight near the airport, and the closest: about 7–8 km from Lohegaon, well under 30 minutes off-peak. Built in 1892 by Sultan Muhammed Shah Aga Khan III, the palace became a prison: Mahatma Gandhi, his wife Kasturba and his secretary Mahadev Desai were interned here from 9 August 1942 to 6 May 1944 after the Quit India Movement. Both Kasturba Gandhi and Mahadev Desai died in captivity here in 1944, and their memorials (samadhis) stand in the grounds. It now houses a Gandhi museum. Entry is a few rupees for Indians and around ₹100 for foreign visitors (verify the current Archaeological Survey rate, which has risen over time). For a traveler with a couple of free hours from the airport, this is the obvious choice — it is both the nearest major sight and the most significant.

🏯 Shaniwar Wada

The fortified seat of the Peshwa rulers of the Maratha Empire, built in 1732 in the heart of the old city, about 3 km from Pune Junction (so 10–12 km and 30–45 minutes from the airport in traffic). A great fire in 1828 gutted the wooden interiors, so what survives is the massive stone perimeter, the Delhi Gate with its anti-elephant spikes, and the foundations — more ruin than palace, but the central monument of Maratha Pune. Modest entry fee; allow an hour.

⛰️ Sinhagad Fort

A hill fort about 30 km southwest of the city (roughly an hour each way by road, more in weekend traffic), 1,300 m up, scene of the 1670 night assault led by the Maratha commander Tanaji Malusare, who died taking it for Shivaji. The climb and the ridge-top views over the Sahyadri hills are the draw, along with the famous roadside pithla-bhakri and hot bhajis at the top. Entry is nominal (around ₹20). A half-day at minimum; better as a morning out.

🏞️ Khadakwasla Dam

On the way to or from Sinhagad, the Khadakwasla reservoir is the local sundowner spot — a popular evening drive from the city for the lakeside food stalls and the breeze. Worth folding into a Sinhagad trip rather than a destination on its own.

🌄 Lonavala and Khandala

The classic hill-station day-trip: Lonavala is about 65 km from Pune, roughly 1 to 1.5 hours via the Mumbai–Pune Expressway, with the parallel Khandala right beside it. Western Ghats greenery (spectacular in and just after the June–September monsoon), viewpoints, old hill forts, and the regional sweet chikki that the town is known for. A full day from Pune; doable as a long morning-to-evening loop with a car and driver. In monsoon the waterfalls run and the hills go green; in the dry pre-monsoon months it’s browner and hotter.

🧘 Koregaon Park and the Osho Ashram

If your taste runs the other way, Koregaon Park is Pune’s leafy, upscale quarter — cafes, restaurants, and the Osho International Meditation Resort, the ashram built around the controversial guru Rajneesh/Osho. The resort itself has entry rules and a paid day-pass system; the surrounding neighbourhood is the city’s best area for a good meal and a coffee.

⏱️ Layover Math

Be honest about a connection. With the airport 11 km out and Pune traffic what it is, a round trip into the city for a sight is 60–90 minutes of driving alone, before you’ve seen anything. Add Indian airport security (you re-clear from scratch — domestic check-in counters close 45–60 minutes before departure, and you’ll want to be airside 60–90 minutes out). The arithmetic: anything under about 5 hours between flights, stay in the terminal. With 5–6 hours you could just manage the Aga Khan Palace (the closest sight) and back if traffic cooperates and you don’t dawdle — but it’s tight, and a single jam kills it. Anything in town beyond Aga Khan Palace needs a half-day you don’t have on a layover. If you want Pune, build in an overnight, not a connection.

🔧 7. Practical Notes — Connectivity, Currency, Safety

Wifi and SIM. Airport wifi exists but is patchy and time-limited. For a stay of more than a day or two, get an Indian SIM — Jio and Airtel have the broad coverage, with prepaid tourist plans bundling generous data. Buying a SIM in India requires your passport, visa and a passport photo, and there’s a short KYC activation delay (sometimes a few hours), so a counter at the airport or first day in town is the move. An eSIM from Jio or Airtel, or an international travel-eSIM bought before you fly, sidesteps the physical-SIM paperwork and is the cleaner option for a short trip — have data live the moment you land, which matters for booking the cab.

Payments. Pune is close to cashless. UPI QR-code payment runs everything from market stalls to autorickshaws, and cards work widely, but UPI needs an Indian bank account that most visitors won’t have — so for you it’s cards plus a cushion of cash. Keep small notes (₹10–100) for autos, tips and stalls; large notes are awkward to break.

Safety and scams. Pune is among the safer large Indian cities, and the airport itself is orderly. The standard India frictions still apply. At arrivals, ignore freelance “taxi?” touts and use the app or the prepaid counter. The airport-tout overcharge and the “your hotel is closed, let me take you to a better one” routine are the classics — don’t engage. Petty theft is opportunistic, not endemic; keep bags zipped on crowded metro and market stretches. Solo women travellers report Pune as more comfortable than much of north India, with the usual sensible precautions after dark.

Tipping. Not obligatory and not expected at the level Westerners assume. Round up the cab fare, leave 5–10% at a sit-down restaurant if service isn’t already added, ₹20–50 for a porter. Auto and app-cab drivers don’t expect a tip beyond rounding.

Water and health. Don’t drink the tap water — bottled or properly filtered only, and that includes ice in cheaper places and brushing teeth if you’re cautious. Sealed bottled water is cheap and everywhere. Street food is part of the point in Pune, but pick busy stalls with high turnover, eat it hot and freshly cooked, and give your stomach a day to adjust before the adventurous end of the menu.

Heat and monsoon. Pune’s climate is gentler than Mumbai’s — it sits on the Deccan plateau at about 560 m, so evenings cool down and the humidity is lower. April–May is hot and dry; the southwest monsoon (roughly June–September) brings the rain and greens the hills; October–February is the pleasant window. Flights run year-round, but monsoon can mean delays.

❓ 8. Frequently Asked Questions

📊 9. 2026 Summary Data Table