India’s rapidly expanding civil aviation sector is essential to economic development, yet it adds new pressures to already degraded urban air quality. Despite national initiatives, many Indian cities continue to exceed air-quality standards, and pollution-related health burdens remain high. As India becomes the world’s third-largest aviation market, aircraft operations and airport infrastructure are projected to increase sharply, with more than 2,500 aircraft and up to 400 operational airports expected by 2047. Major airports such as Delhi, Mumbai, and Chennai are embedded within dense urban environments, where surrounding populations are highly susceptible to increases in airport-related emissions.

Evaluating these impacts requires realistic modeling of aircraft as mobile sources that emit pollutants at variable rates and heights. Emissions released near the surface during taxiing, queuing, idling, and ground support operations dominate human exposure near airports. However, plume rise during take-off and initial climb can significantly modify ground-level concentrations downwind by influencing dilution, transport, and vertical mixing. This presentation outlines a comprehensive framework that integrates detailed aircraft emission inventories using AEDT, improved AERMOD-based dispersion modeling that accounts for plume-rise dynamics, and targeted field measurements around airport boundaries.