It is located eight kilometres (5 mi) south of the city in the village of Mandakalli and is owned and operated by the Airports Authority of India.

Government officials such as Jawaharlal Nehru landed at the airfield,[4] and the National Cadet Corps used it to train glider pilots.

[4][7] The airport had two grass runways and was capable of handling Douglas DC-3s and similar planes at the time.

[9][10] Five months later, Kingfisher Airlines started a flight to Bangalore, which lasted until November 2011.

[15][16] In September 2017, TruJet commenced service to Chennai under the central government's Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik scheme.