VIJAYAWADA: International flight services from Vijayawada International Airport near Gannavaram are coming to normal after about three-and-a-half years’ Covid lull. Air India has decided to operate direct flights between Sharjah and Vijayawada on Monday and Saturday every week from October 31. Though the schedule has been announced by Air India, the ticket bookings are yet to begin.
Services were started from the airport as part of Vande Bharat Mission, the airport officials said.
A186 Boeing 737-800 passenger aircraft will depart from Sharjah at 1.40 pm (IST) and arrive at Vijayawada at 5.35 pm (IST). The return flight will depart from Gannavaram at 6.35 pm and reach Sharjah at 10.35 pm, sources said.
The initial ticket price from Vijayawada to Sharjah has been fixed at `15,069.The number of passengers going to the Arab countries will increase significantly once the Air India services begin.After the ban on international flight services was lifted by the Centre, airport officials have started preparations to run full-scale services to foreign countries.
Vijayawada Airport was granted international status by the Centre in May 2017. However, due to various technical reasons, the weekly service between Vijayawada and Singapore was cancelled for 6 months in 2019. Currently, there is only one weekly service to Muscat and five weekly services from Sharjah, Kuwait and Muscat, the airport officials said.
REACHING CITY AT 5.30 PM
The passenger aircraft will depart from Sharjah at 1.40 pm and arrive at Vijayawada at 5.35 pm . The return flight will depart from Gannavaram at 6.35 pm and reach Sharjah at 10.35 pm. The ticket price starts at o Sharjah `15,069.