Tuesday, October 10, 2023

Vizag airport night flight shutdown nears, stakeholders raise alarm

Visakhapatnam: The decision to restrict flights at night-time to enable authorities to undertake resurfacing work at the runway of Visakhapatnam International Airport has forced the Scoot Airlines to change its time of departure and arrival for its flight between the City of Destiny and Singapore. Airports Authority of India (AAI) maintains the airport as a civil enclave on INS Dega-an airfield of the Indian Navy used for operational convenience of the Eastern Naval Command headquartered here.

The airport has a night-landing facility with a separate terminal recently built for use by international travellers at a cost of Rs 60 crore. Another terminal building is under proposal with an investment of Rs 240 crore. Post-Covid, though flight to Singapore was revived, other airlines including IndiGo, AirAsia, VietJet Air, Sri Lankan Airlines and Thai Airways at various points of time have shown interest to operate flights to Colombo, Dubai, Bangkok, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Kuala Lumpur. It is proposed to shutdown the airport for domestic flights once Bhogapuram International Airport, under construction by GMR Group at a cost of Rs 5,000 crore for the first phase, gets ready.

As announced earlier, Visakhapatnam Airport will be closed for flights as the authorities want to prohibit flight operation from 9 pm to 8 am from November 15, 2023 to April 1, 2024 to undertake the resurfacing work of the runway. A senior official of the AAI told Bizz Buzz that the resurfacing work at Visakhapatnam was long due necessitating taking it up now.

10/10/2023 Santosh Patnaik/Bizz Buzz

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