International Traffic At Vizag Airport Shows Falling Trend In FY 2025–26

VISAKHAPATNAM: International aircraft movement at the Visakhapatnam Airport stands at 471 for the first seven months of FY 2025–26, compared to 951 recorded across the full year of FY 2024–25. While the current figure is only for a partial fiscal, its trajectory indicates no ramp-up.

This is in stark contrast to the domestic sector, which recorded 12,359 flight movements during the same April-October 2025 period.

As per passenger data, while domestic travellers numbered 16,50,797 between April and October 2025, international passengers totalled only 59,115 during the same period. The total footfall at the airport stood at 17,09,912 for these seven months.

A month-by-month analysis of domestic passenger traffic reveals that May 2025 recorded the highest footfall with 260,229 passengers, followed by October 2025 243,701 passengers and August 2025 240,807 passengers.

On the lower side, July 2025 saw the lowest domestic traffic at 216,137 passengers. September 2025 recorded 217,806 passengers, and April 2025 – 234,864 passengers.

International passenger numbers show that April 2025 led international traffic with 9,801 travellers, the highest for the period. October followed with 9,476 passengers and August 2025 with 9,248 passengers.

The lowest international footfall was recorded in May 2025 with 6,597 passengers, followed by 7,447 passengers in June 2025 and 8,098 passengers in July 2025.

In terms of aircraft movements, April 2025 emerged as the peak month with 1,820 domestic movements and 86 international flights, the highest for both categories during the seven months under review.

The year-on-year comparison shows that while domestic operations have grown steadily from 19,653 movements in FY 2023–24 to 21,373 movements in FY 2024–25, international operations peaked at 951 movements in FY 2024–25.

Domestic passengers increased from 27,22,722 in FY 2023–24 to 28,33,007 in FY 2024–25, while international passengers rose from 66,192 to 1,21,972 before dropping to 59,115 in the current period.

Andhra Pradesh tourism forum president Vijay Mohan attributed the low international footfall to loss of two key Asian routes this year. He explained that the focus has not been aligned with Buddhist tourism. But now that Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu is emphasising on the need to activate the Buddhist circuit, the connectivity could increase.

The Buddhist circuit spans 11 Asian countries, including Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia and Myanmar, making connectivity critical to tap this potential, Vijay Mohan said.