Night parking facility at Visakhapatnam Airport likely
With six more parking bays, the number goes up to 14.
Visakhapatnam: The long-pending demand of stakeholders and air passengers that creation of a night parking facility at Vizag Airport for increase the number of early morning flights from Vizag city and also increase the night landing of flights in the airport will be reality from most probably May 2017.
Six more parking bays will come up at the Vizag Airport with in the one year to operate early morning flights to various destinations and late night landing flights to Vizag. Since the proposed greenfield international airport at Bhogapuram area in Vizianagaram district is likely to come up in another 5 years, the union government has been spending Rs 28 crore for creation of night parking facility at the Vizag Airport by adding six more parking bays at the airport.
Vizag MP K. Haribabu said Vizag, which has flights to all locations in the country and three international destinations and Vizag airport was the 18th busiest airport in the country, is most suited for the night landing purpose. The night parking facility will enable operations to early morning services to various destinations from Vizag city, he added.
Vizag Airport Director Vinod Kumar Sharma said that Vizag Airport will have 14 parking bays by May 2017. At present, there are six old parking bays and two new parking bays and the six more parking bays will used for night parking and few others purposes, he added.
The flights movement has increased in Vizag Airport and the passengers footfall at the airport is set to cross 17 lakh mark by the end of the current fiscal (2015-16). The Airports Authority of India (AAI) officials said that for the first time, Vizag Airport has registered over one lakh passengers footfall every month comprising both international and domestic passengers in the current fiscal year.
However, the AAI officials said that nearly 70 per cent of air-passengers of AP travel to Middle-East, around 22 per cent to North Ame-rica and 7 per cent to South East Asia and Europe. But, the air passengers have been depen-ding on Hyderabad, Chennai and Kolkata to fly out as Vizag airport is yet to be well connected.