Visakhapatnam Airport to be busy during Global Summit

Vijayawada: Visakhapatnam International Airport will witness a buzz of activity with several chartered flights carrying VIPs for Global Investors Summit (GIS) landing on March 3 and March 4.

Airport authorities have already received requisitions for landing and take-off of chartered flights from Reliance Industries Limited, GMR Group, Jindal Steel and Power, and Apollo, among others.

The chartered flights for the summit will be in addition to arrivals and departures of 31 commercial flights. The airport can handle 10 aircraft an hour on the two days of the summit. It has 16 parking bays, including 12 in new apron and four in old apron. They can accommodate Airbus 777, Airbus A320, Boeing 747, ATRs and choppers.

The airport’s 1,100 feet runway and Air Traffic Control are under the Indian Navy. Other facilities, like parking to facilitate boarding and alighting of passengers, are handled by the Airports Authority of India (AAI).

AAI authorities maintain that based on availability of space on the runway, they will give permission for landing of aircrafts carrying VIPs. In case there is no space available, they will inform pilots about the same, so that they can look for other alternate airports like Hyderabad, Vijayawada and Rajahmundry. Such aircraft can subsequently land at Visakhapatnam once a window is available.

However, as a precautionary measure, Vizag Airport will keep space for emergency landing of flights in case of any trouble. Authorities feel as dignitaries will be arriving at different times for the Global Investors Summit, there may not be any issue of availability of space on the runway for landing or take off. The airport can handle 240 arrivals and departures over 24 hours at the rate of 10 movements per hour.

The list of dignitaries attending the summit include ambassadors from several foreign nations, central ministers, several top industrialists, and officials.

Visakhapatnam Airport director K. Srinivasa Rao said, “We have received five requisitions from firms for landing of chartered flights at our airport in view of the Global Investors Summit. We will give permissions for landing based on availability of space on the runway at the particular point of time. If space is not available, we will inform the pilots about the same. But we are sure of handling the arrivals and departures of aircrafts without any trouble during the big event.”