Cochin International Airport — Kochi, India

Long before sustainability became a global aviation buzzword, COK made history in 2015 by becoming the first airport anywhere powered entirely by solar energy, an achievement recognized a few years later with a United Nations environmental award and widely copied by other airports since. Located in Nedumbassery, north of central Kochi, the facility broke additional ground decades earlier as India's first airport built and financed through a public limited company rather than direct central government funding, a model that inspired similar arrangements at other Indian airports built afterward, including nearby Kannur. Kerala's deep economic ties to the Gulf states run directly through the terminal, with a huge share of traffic made up of expatriate workers flying to and from Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Saudi Arabia, alongside dedicated Hajj pilgrim charter flights each year. Multiple runways and passenger terminals now handle both this labor-migration traffic and a growing cargo business tied to Kerala's spice, seafood, and textile exports.