Vijayawada: The first direct flight of Air India Express from Vijayawada to Sharjah took off at 6.35 pm with 119 passengers and six infants on board from Vijayawada International Airport here on Monday.
Machilipatnam MP Balashowry Vallabhaneni and Vijayawada MP Kesineni Srinivas flagged off the inaugural flight at a programme held at the airport.
Phaneendra Reddy and his wife were the first passengers to receive the board card.
Speaking on the occasion, Machilipatnam MP said he felt very happy for flagging off the direct flight to Sharjah from Vijayawada and added that the flight would operate twice in a week (Monday and Saturday). He assured efforts to enhance the number of flights to Sharjah in case more passengers wanted to go to Sharjah from Vijayawada.
The MP said that flights from Vijayawada to Singapore, Malaysia and Bangkok would be launched soon.
He said the people from Guntur, Krishna and erstwhile Godavari districts were working in Sharjah and they used to board flights from Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi as there were no direct flights earlier and opined that the launch of a direct flight would be of immense benefit to them as it would also save money to them.
