Visakhapatnam: Visakhapatnam, the City of Destiny, needs new flights because of its increasing commercial needs. In this regard, city’s airport director S. Rajareddy has written letters to domestic and international airlines to introduce and increase their operations to and from Vizag.
Rajareddy pointed out that the City of Destiny is a beautiful place and will attract a lot of tourist traffic. Steel plant, port, HPCL, SCZ, Eastern Naval Command headquarters and pharmacy industries are a plus point. People are also increasingly taking to air travel. “In a situation like this, the city needs more flights," he underlined.
Visakhapatnam International Airport has all facilities of international standards. There are 16 parking stands, a 3.33 lakh square feet terminal building, 30 checking counters, three passenger boarding bridges and 36 immigration counters. The airport can handle 3.5 to 4 million passengers.
“Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy is saying Vizag is going to be the administrative capital. The airport will thus witness more passengers. Various airlines are also showing interest in starting their flights to Visakhapatnam. My letter to domestic and international airlines have got positive responses,” the airport director stated.
SpiceJet wants to introduce five flights. Indigo has already got permission to operate two flights from Visakhapatnam. They will operate flights to Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata and Jharsuguda.
SpiceJet will fly to Hyderabad, Kolkata and Jharsuguda on a daily basis. Flights to Chennai and Bengaluru will be three to four days a week. So far, there have been no flights from Visakhapatnam to Jharsuguda. There has been high demand for this service though in view of Jharsuguda being an industrial area. SpiceJet has come forward to operate its flight between Visakhapatnam and Jharsuguda.
Indigo has decided to operate its flights daily to Kolkata and Bengaluru. There will be two services daily. The flight to Kolkata will start from November 15 at 6:50 pm and to Bengaluru on November 16 at 10:30 am.
Airport authorities said the suspended flight service between Sri Lanka and Visakhapatnam will resume soon. The service between Colombo and Visakhapatnam had started in 2017. But it was cancelled during the Covid pandemic. Previously, the flight from Bangkok to Dubai flew via Visakhapatnam.
Currently, there is only one international flight to Singapore from Visakhapatnam.
Before Covid, Visakhapatnam witnessed 2.85 million passengers every year. Currently, the passenger numbers are touching this number. Airport officials estimate that the traffic will reach three million by the end of this financial year.
