Now, AirAsia will take you to Bangkok directly from Vizag
The budget airline will also start flights to Kuala Lumpur from April 26
image for illustrative purpose
Visakhapatnam: Excitement writ large on the faces of passengers as they boarded the inaugural flight from Visakhapatnam International Airport to Bangkok at around 11.50 pm on Tuesday. This was preceded by the arrival of flight from Bangkok 30 minutes before the departure of Thailand-bound passengers.
The inaugural flight had almost 80 per cent occupancy. AirAsia, a low-cost carrier, which launched the service to Thailand, has announced the operation of another direct flight between Visakhapatnam and Kuala Lumpur from April 26. The city at present has connectivity with Singapore by Scoot, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore Airlines. Talks are underway to launch a direct flight to Dubai from here by Air India Express in the near future.
The inaugural function of the Bangkok flight was attended by N Kishore, Regional Manager, South & West India, Witchunee Kuntapeng, Head, Global Guest Services, AirAsia, Airport Director Raja Reddy, K Vijay Mohan, president, Tours and Travel Association of Andhra (TTAA), Kumara Raja, DS Varma and O Naresh Kumar from Visakha Air Travellers' Association (VATA).
The flight from Bangkok reaches Visakhapatnam at 11.20 pm and the flight from the city takes off at 11.50 pm and arrives at (Don Mueang (DMK) International Airport at 4.15 am the next day. At present, both Thailand and Malaysia are offering free visas on arrival to Indian tourists. Thailand has waived visa fee till May 10. Malaysia is offering the facility till December 24. "In view of the new service introduced to Thailand, we appeal to the authorities there to extend the facility for sometime to boost tourism between the two countries," Vijay Mohan told Bizz Buzz and hoped that the new flights will attract passengers from North Andhra, South Odisha and parts of Chattisgarh because of logistic advantage.
Travel operators also feel that due to concessional tariff being offered by Scoot, AirAsia may also come up further with more discounts for corporates and large groups to ensure high occupancy on both ways and underline the importance of promotional campaigns in Thailand as well as in India on facilities available for leisure tourists.
In a praiseworthy initiative, the headquarters of Eastern Naval Command (ENC) opened the airport for 24x7 operations from April 1 after obtaining clearance from the runway inspection agency for usage in alignment with the winter schedule.
The Navy completed the resurfacing of the runway ahead of schedule. Visakhapatnam International Airport is a civil enclave on the INS Dega airbase. An international airport is under construction by GMR Group at Bhogapuram, about 40 km from here.
