VIJAYAWADA: The much-awaited daily flight service connecting Vijayawada with Mumbai is all set to start from May 26 with SpiceJet announcing its schedule on Wednesday. The airliner will also commence a daily non-stop service between Tirupati and the financial capital from May 28 onwards.“In line with the airline’s commitment on enhancing regional connectivity, SpiceJet has introduced new flights on Mumbai-Vijayawada and Mumbai-Tirupati sectors for the first time,” a press release from SpiceJet said.
As per the schedule, flight number 6435 will depart Mumbai at 11.30 am and arrive at Vijayawada at 1 pm. Return flight 6436 is scheduled to depart Vijayawada at 1.30 pm and arrive at Mumbai at 2.55 pm. Similarly, Tirupati-bound flight 6422 will depart Mumbai at 3.35 pm and arrive at the temple city at 5.15 pm. Return flight 6451 will depart Tirupati at 5.45 pm and arrive at Mumbai at 7.40 pm.
Both the flights to and from the two cities of the State will depart and arrive from Terminal no. 2 of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai. At present, Air India Express operates a tri-weekly direct flight between Vijayawada and Mumbai.Plans and proposals of several airliners since 2016-2017 to launch a daily direct service to Mumbai from Gannavaram, the only airport in the State capital region, never materialised. Plans of Indigo to launch daily services between both the cities reportedly got shelved due to unavailability of slots at Mumbai Airport.
The business community and commerce and industry bodies from the State capital region had time and again stressed upon the need for a daily service between Vijayawada and Mumbai.However, the breakthrough was incidentally achieved after Jet Airways suspended its services across the country due to financial crisis, freeing up slots at several airports. SpiceJet has taken over most of these free slots after which the decision was taken to launch the much-awaited service from the two cities of the State. The airline will launch 20 new domestic flights from the last week of May, 18 of which will connect the financial capital with metro and smaller cities.