Sambhajinagar (Aurangabad) Airport to Shirdi — Full Guide (2026)

Flying into Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar for Sai Baba's darshan is the shortest air route to Shirdi that most people never consider — 114 km, about two hours by road, against far more from Mumbai or Pune. This guide covers the flight, the one naming trap that catches people at booking, the drive, and what to do about the terminal works.

✈️ The name on your ticket is not the name of the city

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar is the city. The airport is still IXU, and still listed as Aurangabad Airport almost everywhere you would book a flight.

In December 2025 the centre permitted the name Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Airport, but because it differed from the state's own proposal, the Airports Authority of India put the change on hold. So the code, the departure boards and most booking sites still carry the old name.

The practical consequence is small and annoying: search airline and aggregator sites for "Aurangabad", not "Sambhajinagar", or you can genuinely fail to find your own flight. Once you land, everything local says Sambhajinagar.

🛬 What flies here

The airport is a small single-terminal operation with a handful of daily domestic connections — IndiGo serves Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Goa, and Air India connects Delhi. Schedules are thin rather than absent, which matters for a same-day plan: if you are landing to do darshan and fly out again, check the return before you commit to the day.

There is a government-authorised prepaid taxi counter in arrivals alongside the app cabs, so you are not negotiating on the kerb at the end of a flight.

📍 The drive — 114 km, and it really is two hours

The road runs roughly Sambhajinagar → Vaijapur → Yeola → Kopargaon → Shirdi, on state highway most of the way, with the Nagar–Manmad road for the final stretch.

Two hours for 114 km is an average under 60 km/h, and that is the honest figure rather than the optimistic one. It is not a difficult drive — it is simply not a fast one, and the difference matters when you are planning around an aarti or a flight home.

Plan backwards, not forwards. If you want the Kakad Aarti you are leaving the airport in the dark; if you are catching an evening flight out, leave Shirdi with three hours in hand, not two.

🚌 Bus and train, honestly

There is no direct airport bus. State and private buses run from the city bus stands towards Shirdi through the day, so a bus trip means getting from the terminal into town first and changing there — an hour of faff on either side of the journey, for a fare saving that rarely justifies it when you are three or four people with luggage.

By rail the nearest useful station to Shirdi is Sainagar Shirdi, but connections from Sambhajinagar are not frequent enough to build a day around. For this particular hop the road is simply the answer.

🕉️ Arriving at Shirdi

Darshan at the Samadhi Mandir runs long hours and the queue is the variable, not the opening time. A weekday arrival before mid-morning is a different experience from a Sunday afternoon one. If you are landing on a Thursday — Baba's day — assume the town is fuller than you expected.

Once you are there, our Shirdi Prasadalaya guide covers the free meal hall most first-timers walk straight past, and the best time to visit Shirdi is worth reading before you fix dates.

🛕 Worth stopping for on the way out

You have flown into the doorstep of two things most Shirdi pilgrims never see. Grishneshwar, the twelfth Jyotirlinga, is 41 km from this airport — and it stands less than a kilometre from the Ellora Caves. If your return flight is in the evening, that is a comfortable half-day on the way back rather than a separate trip; our Shirdi to Grishneshwar guide covers the temple itself.

🏨 Where to stay

Most people flying in for darshan stay in Shirdi itself rather than in Sambhajinagar — the temple town has the inventory and the early-morning access.

🙏 Frequently asked questions

🚩 Wrap-up

Sambhajinagar is the closest airport to Shirdi that hardly anyone books, and the only real traps are the name on the ticket and the two hours the road actually takes. Get both right and it is the easiest way to reach Baba by air. Om Sai Ram! 🚩