Direct flights from Vizag to Bangkok, Kuala Lumpura to take off in April

Air Links

• Runway upgrade nearing completion in March, facilitating further expansion
• Travel industry hopes for more international flights after resurfacing and policy changes
• Stakeholders aim to attract travel agents and visitors from Southeast Asia
• Dubai, Sri Lanka, Vietnam next direct flight destinations

Visakhapatnam: Even as the resurfacing work at the runway of Visakhapatnam International Airport (VIA) is continuing at brisk pace, two foreign airlines have come forward to launch direct flights separately from the city to Malaysia and Thailand.

In a welcome development, Thai Air Asia announced on Monday the launching of thrice a week direct flights between Visakhapatnam and Bangkok from April 9. It will operate the service on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The one-way fare is available from Rs 9,000 onwards. The flight will land and take off from Don Mueang International Airport, popular as DMK, which was earlier known as Bangkok International Airport. The new airport in Bangkok is named Suvarnabhumi International Airport.

Another key decision is by Air Asia Malaysia to operate a direct flight to and from Kuala Lumpur to Visakhapatnam by April-end.

“These are very big developments for Andhra Pradesh as we are reviving the lost branding of our airport as an international airport with good connectivity to travel to the United States and Europe,” Airport Advisory Committee member K Vijay Mohan told Bizz Buzz.

Vijay Mohan, who is the president of Tours and Travel Association of Andhra (TTAA) was part of a delegation to Kuala Lumpur to hold talks with the top officials of Air Asia sometime ago at its headquarters. “The response is quite encouraging. Now we are trying to partner with the Andhra Pradesh Government to organise Travel Marts so that we can bring travel agents and operators from Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia,” he said.

Exuding confidence that AP Tourism Authority (APTA) and other important key stakeholders will join them in bringing travel operators and others from the six countries to showcase the tourism potential mainly by marketing the Buddhist Circuit in the region, he said if required support is extended, there is immense potential to ensure full occupancy of the international flights from both destinations.

At present, VIA, a civil enclave located on the INS Dega air station of the Indian Navy operates both defence and commercial flights. The resurfacing work, last done a decade ago, is expected to be completed by March-end. Travel industry stakeholders hope that more foreign flights are expected to take off once the resurfacing work is completed and the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Ministry of Defence adopt a liberal approach towards allotment of flying and parking slots for the international flights. Earlier, Visakhapatnam MP MVV Satyanarayana, BJP Rajya Sabha member GVL Narasimha Rao and BJP State president and former Union Minister Daggubati Purandeswari had represented to the Government of India to allow more international flights from Visakhapatnam as the city has tremendous potential being a prominent centre for tourism, industries and IT.

After the pandemic, Visakhapatnam has only one direct flight by Scoot, the low-cost subsidiary of Singapore Airlines (SIA) operates direct flight from Visakhapatnam. It has to advance its timing due to restrictions imposed for night services due to ongoing resurfacing work.