Visakhapatnam airport undergoes wide scale expansion and development.

Visakhapatnam International Airport is under massive expansion. The project announced last year has already showed success. Six new parking bays have been set up to facilitate the night parking requirements here. As planned earlier there is an increase in the number of early morning flights. Presently the aerobridge can accommodate not more than six aircrafts at a time. The work on creating additional bays has almost been completed as indicated by the airport director. It is expected to be ready by th end of this month.

Going by reports, the number of international flights has been increased massively from 55,634 in the year 2014-15 to 1,12,298 in the year 2015-16. The airport in Vizag has seen an increase in the number of domestic passengers from 10,40,963 in 2014-15 to 16,85,400 in the year 2015-16. The Goods and Services Tax has had a favourable impact. It has made travelling by air cheaper than earlier. This has contributed to the increasing passenger count. The international flights have also been increased by 50 per cent.  As of now, there are three international flights to Dubai, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore being operated from the city’s airport. In addition to this there will be Vizag-Colombo flight coming up which will be operated by the Air Lanka.

The increase in connectivity of flights from Vizag to 14 other domestic destinations makes capacity addition at the airport necessary. The airport is likely to witness the expansion of the airport by increasing the number of terminals. The check in areas will be streamlined soon with the festival season coming up. This expansion is being done by the Union Government. The expansion is by the government spending around Rs 28 crores for this. The airport at Bhogapuram area in Vizianagaram  is most likely to take another five years for development and operation.

Source – TOI