Plea for Continuation of Flights to Malaysia, Thailand, Vijayawada

 Visakhapatnam: The Tours and Travel Association of Andhra Pradesh has requested the Union Civil Aviation Minister K Ramamohan Naidu to continue the direct flights to Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and Vijayawada from here.

In a letter to the minister, association president Naresh Kumar said, “Air Asia has announced plans to withdraw its flights from Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok to Visakhapatnam from May first week. Indigo Airlines has already withdrawn its two morning services to Vijayawada from April 1.

This would make it very difficult for people from here to travel to Vijayawada in the morning, especially on Tuesdays when there is Vande Bharat service, too, to Vijayawada, Kumar said.

He said that as AP was positioning itself as a destination for industrial investment, its infrastructure must match its ambition. “Visakhapatnam - the state’s economic engine - is now facing a critical bottleneck in connectivity, threatening to derail its growth trajectory.”

Kumar said daily domestic flights to key economic and cultural hubs like Kolkata, Goa, Pune and Coimbatore have been discontinued though these routes enjoyed passenger loads of over 80 per cent.

Air Asia’s exit from international operations to Kuala Lumpur and Don Mueang, and the earlier withdrawal of Air India’s flight to Dubai via Hyderabad with immigration services at Vizag Airport, have left the city with only a single international connection — Singapore.

Visakhapatnam, the state’s financial hub, is also missing critical early-morning flights. These routes are vital for political, judicial and business stakeholders commuting to Delhi, Kolkata and the NorthEast, Kumar said.

He pointed out that smaller states like Goa and Uttarakhand have achieved robust morning and evening flight schedules with aggressive coordination between the airport authorities and airline route planners.