Summer schedule rekindles hopes of better flight connectivity from Vizag

Visakhapatnam: The summer schedule announced for Visakhapatnam International Airport and the launching of two international flights in April have rekindled the hope that connectivity with other cities from here will improve from the ensuing financial year.

“Visakhapatnam Airport is going to bounce back to its earlier status and will be operational 24 hours from summer schedule. Two new international flights to Malaysia and Thailand while one additional flight each to Delhi and Hyderabad are new additions in schedule from April 1 to October 26,” an airport official said.

“While 2022-23 has seen a growth rate of 55.14 per cent, the new schedule of airlines released for summer onwards for Visakhapatnam Airport seems to be very exciting as it is going to bring a phenomenal change for the City of Destiny,” Chaganti Srinivasu, a senior corporate executive, said on Friday.

He told Bizz Buzz that “I believe the airlines are not taking the competitive advantage of the sector VTZ -BOM, as the existing timings of both the flights between the financial capital of India and the financial hub of Andhra Pradesh are scheduled during post-lunch at 1500 hrs, 1600 hrs, making it impossible for business travellers to make Mumbai trip over a day. While Visakhapatnam to Hyderabad, as many as seven direct flights are flying now as per new schedule, restoration or extension of IndiGo flight that used to depart at 08:10 and reach Mumbai at 11:10 via Hyderabad will be an ideal connection for business travellers.”

Several regular fliers feel that going by the importance of this growing city, Visakhapatnam deserves more flights to the metros so that a busy person can go to the other city in the morning on a business trip and return to his home by the same day evening. There is also a demand for opening of lounges at Visakhapatnam International Airport and improvement in parking and recreation amenities at the airport.

The airport is a civil enclave where INS Dega, the air station of Eastern Naval Command, exists. Visakhapatnam airport saw 24.35 lakh domestic passengers during 2022-23 compared to 16.07 lakh the previous year. The airport has been seeing an impressive rise in the number of passengers during the current fiscal. A greenfield international airport is under construction at Bhogapuram, about 40 km from here, by awarding the project for construction and operation to GMR Group.

Commenting on the future prospects, Airport Advisory Committee member K Vijay Mohan, said “though it is an election time, we are pursuing better connectivity with other metros and introduction of more international flights following ahead of schedule completion of resurfacing work of the runway by the headquarters of Eastern Naval Command.

We are poised to get a direct flight to Dubai from Visakhapatnam by Air India Express shortly.” The runway inspection agency recently cleared the airport for all-round operations after successful completion of the fourth layer of resurfacing work of the airport. To facilitate resurfacing work, the flight operations were restricted from 8 am to 8 pm.