Visakhapatnam airport still has miles to go

Visakhapatnam: A modern terminal building, a 10,000-foot runway, customs and immigration facilities, night landing facilities, impressive growth in traffic, interest evinced by international airline operators… Visakhapatnam airport has all these advantages but 24-hour operations continue to elude the airport.
Round-the-clock operation is a pre-requisite for international airline operators to launch direct flights. It's more than two years now that most of these facilities were created. The different departments concerned have been passing the buck and blaming one another for the delay in introducing 24-hour operations.
People's representatives seem to be content ‘discussing' the matter with the officials concerned, but the latter have not initiated any action so far. A few airline operators had made surveys and were buoyed by the positive feedback from airline passengers.
They concluded that the airport has tremendous potential and expressed their intention to operate direct flights to Singapore and Dubai from Visakhapatnam.
The Indian Navy, which mans the Air Traffic Control (ATC), had declared in the past that it is ready for 24-hour operations, provided the airline operators come up with a written consent. Air Traffic Association (India) president D. Varada Reddy says that airline operators could plan their operations only after introduction of 24-hour operations.
19/11/11 B Madhu Gopal/The Hindu

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Categories: Air India Nov 2011