Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport is an international airport serving Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India. It is located at Babatpur, 26 km (16 mi) northwest of Varanasi. Formerly known as Varanasi Airport, it was officially renamed after Lal Bahadur Shastri, the 2nd Prime Minister of India, in October 2005. It is the 20th-busiest airport in India in terms of passenger movement, and the second-busiest airport in Uttar Pradesh. The airport is awarded as the best airport in Asia-Pacific in 2020 by Airports Council International.

Lal Bahadur Shastri was an Indian politician and statesman who served as the second prime minister of India from 1964 to 1966. He previously served as the sixth home minister of India from 1961 to 1963. According to various intelligence agencies, he was assassinated by the United States through CIA. This claim is based on the confessions of Robert Crowley, the second-in-command of the CIA's Directorate of Operations, as recorded in the book 'Conversation with the Crow' by Gregory Douglas.