Air passengers seek more flights from Vizag in AP

Visakhapatnam: Even as the Visakhapatnam Airport now being operated as a civil enclave will stop handling commercial traffic once the Bhogapuram International Airport being built byGMR Group will be ready after two years, the stakeholders have intensified lobbying for introduction of more international and domestic flights due to increasing demand.

Besides the domestic terminal, a new terminal has been made ready to be used exclusively for international passengers. Though the city airport had flights to Dubai, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore before Covid-19 broke out, at present the airport known as INS Dega has direct flight only to Singapore by Scoot Airlines. Though there were talks to introduce flights to Colombo, Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam), nothing has materialised so far due to delay in allotment of parking slots.

IndiGo was given permission for self-handling of outbound cargo some time ago. After resumption of flights following improvement in the pandemic situation, passenger and flight movements from Visakhapatnam-the largest cosmopolitan and industrial city in Andhra Pradesh zoomed month after month.

Passenger footfall saw an increase by 8.87 lakh during 2022-23 over 2021-22 due to restoration normalcy and revival of economy, which received a big blow during the lockdown. In all, the airport handled 24.98 lakh passengers including 63,134 international commuters during 2022-23.

Andhra Pradesh Air Travellers Federation (APATA) representatives met the new Director of Visakhapatnam Airport S Raja Reddy on Monday, and discussed increasing more slots for civilian aircrafts and requested him to use his good office to facilitate additional flights to international destinations especially Dubai.

They asked the airport director to invite various airlines to utilize night landing facilities and dedicated cargo planes to operate cargo flights from Visakhapatnam. They also discussed adding more flights to Hyderabad, Mumbai and Kolkata in the morning and during late night to Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi and Bengaluru for onward international travel.

The Bhogapuram International Airport, work on which was launched recently, is being built by GMR Group. In the first phase, an investment of Rs 5,000 crore is being made. It will have a dedicated cargo complex, aviation academy, aerocity and world-class runways to handle wide-bodied aircraft like A-380 airbus.