VIJAYAWADA: Peeved over the rejection of permission for airline to operate international services from Vijayawada and Tirupati airports citing ‘serious security concerns,’ Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu urged Union Home Ministry to permit national carriers Air India and Air India Express to fly to national destinations from the two cities.
In a letter written to Union Minister for Home Affairs Rajnath Singh on June 18, Naidu said that Air India Express had come forward with a proposal to extend the existing Vijayawada-Mumbai flight service to Dubai/Sharjah following his letter to Union Civil Aviation Ministry in November last year to permit interested airlines to commence international operations from Vijayawada and Tirupati. Naidu said that a similar proposal was made by Air India to operate services from Tirupati as well.
“It is learnt that the ministry of home has rejected permission for Air India/Express stating that handling both domestic and international passengers from the originating airport shall pose serious security concerns,’’ Naidu said.
Pointing to DGCA official data that permissions were granted to the two airlines to fly on various routes without citing any such security issues, Naidu asked the home ministry to treat Vijayawada and Tirupati airports on similar lines.
Meanwhile, days after the defence authorities proposed restrictions on civil aircraft operations from the Visakhapatnam airport, Naidu urged the Union Defence Ministry to shelve the plan as it would affect the winter schedule of airlines.
Naidu dashed off a letter to Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday urging her not to impose any restrictions on the civil air traffic till the time the airport at Bhogapuram is completed.
“The State has been witnessing significant growth in passenger air traffic over the past four years. During 2014-2018 financial year, passenger traffic at AP airports has significantly increased from about 1.3 million in 2014 to about 4.1 million in 2018,’’ Naidu pointed out.
The CM said that the Visakhapatnam airport was the largest in AP and it handled about 60 percent of air passenger traffic in the State. Pointing out that all major Indian and foreign carriers operate flights from Visakhapatnam to various strategically important domestic and international destinations like Singapore, Kaula Lumpur, Colombo and others, Naidu said air connectivity from Visakhapatnam was vital for the economy of the city and also for the State.
“The proposed restrictions will have a severe impact on civil air traffic in Visakhapatnam as well as economy and tourism in the State. Airlines may be forced to reduce operations from Visakhapatnam. This may result in reduced number of flight options to business travellers and passengers and also decrease in tourist footfall in the region,’’ Naidu said. Naidu said that AP was planning to develop a greenfield international airport at Bhogapuram in Vizianagaram district. Once it becomes operational, the runway of INS Dega (from where the Visakhapatnam airport is now being operated) will be available.
The route
Lucknow - New Delhi - Jeddah
Kochi - Kozhikode - Bahrain
Trivandrum - Kozhikode - Doha
Amritsar - New Delhi - Doha
Bengaluru - Hyderabad - Muscat
Hyderabad - New Delhi - Chicago
Bengaluru - New Delhi - San Francisco
Chennai - Hyderabad - Kuwait
Chennai - Ahmedabad - Kuwait
and Chennai - Trivandrum - Sharjah.