Air traffic revived to pre-Covid period in AP, plea for revival by foreign airlines
With Covid-19 fear receding, domestic airlines have seen a sharp rebound in traffic in Andhra Pradesh after drastic curtailing frequency of flights during the pandemic.
image for illustrative purpose
Visakhapatnam: With Covid-19 fear receding, domestic airlines have seen a sharp rebound in traffic in Andhra Pradesh after drastic curtailing frequency of flights during the pandemic.
Heaving a sigh of relief, air travel operators have now started exerting pressure on the Government of India and foreign airlines to revive operations from Visakhapatnam International Airport to Kuala Lumpur, Dubai and Bangkok. Scoot Airlines has already revived direct flights from Visakhapatnam to Singapore after the Delta cases brought under check in the second spell of the pandemic. The five-days-a-week operation was resumed on December 29, 2021.
"We are confident of reviving flight service to more international destinations shortly," Travel Association of Andhra (TTAA) president K Vijay Mohan and secretary Padhi Srinivas told Bizz Buzz. They said Thailand, the most sought after destination for budget travellers, removed all restrictions on entertainment zones from June 1.
When compared to financial year 2020-21 with regard to number of passengers traveled and aircraft operated from Andhra Pradesh, most of the airports have recorded sharp increase in passengers and aircraft movements in the financial year 2021-22. Among the four airports, Tirupati registered 77 per cent-the highest growth in passenger traffic and 44 per cent growth in aircraft movement.
According to the office-bearers of Andhra Pradesh Air Travellers' Association, during 2020-21, Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Rajahmundry and Tirupati recorded a total number of 11.13 lakh, 5.07 lakh, 2.04 lakh and 3.52 lakh passengers respectively, which went up to 16.10 lakh, 6.25 lakh, 2.75 lakh and 6.23 lakh in 2021-22. The highest growth was recorded by Tirupati (77 per cent) followed by Visakhapatnam 45 per cent, Rajahmundry 35 per cent and Vijayawada 23 per cent.
Association office-bearers K Kumar Raja, O Naresh Kumar and D.S. Varma said aircraft movement went up from 10,671 in Visakhapatnam in 2020-21 to 14,852 in 2021-22.
