Fly Dubai, a subsidiary of Dubai Emirates, has evinced interest in operating a direct flight from Visakhapatnam. In this regard, the airline has applied for landing rights in the Dubai-Visakhapatnam-Dubai sector with civil aviation and defence ministries.
Visakhapatnam airport has an integrated terminal, which can handle both national and international flights. It also has a night landing facility. In the 2009 calendar year, the airport handled about 600,000 passengers and is likely to touch 800,000 this year on the back of more air services and addition of more destinations from Vizag, said D Varada Reddy, president, Air Travelers Association of India.
Fly Dubai is planning to operate its direct flight to Dubai from May or June. The freight charges will be less than Rs 15,000 to and from Vizag and the journey time would be about 4 hours. The flight will have a capacity of around 150 passengers.
It may be noted that Visakhapatnam is one of the 18 destinations announced by the Centre under its ‘Open Sky’ policy for any number of airlines and any number of flights, Reddy said.
Currently, 13 services operate from Vizag daily and another two are likely to be added from March, he added.
