Tourism Minister urges resumption of Air Asia flight from Vizag to Bangkok

Vizag airport has been plagued by a streak of flight withdrawals with airlines cancelling their international services from the port city. The latest to join this list is Air Asia which might discontinue its flight from Vizag to Bangkok and vice versa from mid-September. In this regard, Minister of Tourism, Muttamsetti Srinivasa Rao met the Airport Manager of Air Asia, Devasish Dutt and urged him to resume the flight services from Vizag to Bangkok. He also wrote a letter to Suresh Naik, Air Asia (India Operations), asking the same. 

The flight services in question are FD-116 from Bangkok to Vizag and FD-117 from Vizag to Bangkok with both flights running four days a week (Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday). These services were launched by Air Asia in December last year.

President of Tours and Travel Association of Andhra (TTAA), K Vijay Mohan expressed concern over the matter and criticized Air Asia’s decision to withdraw flight services without prior intimation. He pointed out that many travel agents would have already booked tickets on these flights for the upcoming festival season and obtaining refunds now would be a difficult process.

Vizag Airport’s flight connectivity has already been depleted by Malindo Air’s flight to Kuala Lumpur and SriLankan Airlines’ flight to Colombo being cancelled due to poor occupancy. Air Asia’s decision to withdraw flights from Vizag to Bangkok might be a blow to the city’s development graph.