VIJAYAWADA: The first flight of Air India Express carrying 55 passengers from Sharjah arrived at Vijayawada International Airport, Gannavaram on Monday evening. The traditional water cannon salute was given to the flight on its arrival at Vijayawada airport. The flight will operate twice a week on Monday and Saturday.
Machilipatnam MP Vallabhaneni Bala Showry, Vijayawada MP Kesineni Srinivas, Vijayawada International Airport Director M Lakshmi Kanth Reddy and other dignitaries welcomed the passengers. Later, the chief guests handed over boarding passes to the passengers going from Vijayawada. As many as 122 passengers went to Sharjah from Vijayawada.
Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry Federation (AP Chambers) hailed the commencement of Air India Express Vijayawada - Sharjah direct flight. The AP Chambers made several representations to the Airports Authority of India and various airlines operators seeking commencement of direct flights from Vijayawada to the UAE and Singapore as the two centres will enable passengers to get connected to almost all the countries in the region.
The UAE has 40% Indian population and of which a sizable chunk is from the catchment area of Vijayawada. There is a huge population of NRIs residing in the UAE, the US, Europe and Australia. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Vijayawada airport handled more than 100 international flights, which were operated to bring back Indians stuck in different countries as part of Vande Bharat Mission. This demonstrated the capabilities of Vijayawada airport to handle international flights.
“Recently, we requested Air India to launch a direct flight to Dubai. We also requested IndiGo to resume Singapore flight, which was running in the past with more than 80% occupancy. Since there is a huge NRI population, Air India and IndiGo are requested to operate Hub & Spoke model connecting Vijayawada and other major airports in AP with international destinations like the US, London, Sydney, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok,” a representative of the AP Chambers said.
UAE is a major trading partner of India and Sharjah is one of the major cargo hubs in the UAE. There is a lot of demand for air cargo from AP as the food processing has emerged as one of the key sectors in the State in terms of investment, production and exports. A variety of products such as fruits, fruit juices and fruit pulp are produced and exported to other States and countries from AP.
The State has a lot of potential for exporting perishable products to the UAE and exporters will be able to send the perishable cargo through the flight. Since the direct flight has commenced, AP Chambers urged the AAI to commence duty free shops, separate lounges for international passengers at the airport.