Flights to Singapore from Vijayawada airport here will not commence in the first week of July since no airline has responded to the state governments Request For Proposal (RFP) to operate the services when the original deadline ended today.
Consequently, the Andhra Pradesh Airports Development Corporation Limited has extended the deadline till July 10 for submission of bids.
The actual plan was to start the operations from July 1 but the APADCL has now relaxed the norms.
"Airlines may submit their proposal with indicative date for commencement of flight operations by quoting required VGF (Viability Gap Funding) on per seat/per flight basis and also monthly cost," an amendment to the RFP today said.
On June 7, Chief Minister Chandrababdu Naidu had announced in the presence of Singapores Minister for Information and Communications S Iswaran that direct flight services from the states's capital Amaravati (Vijaywada airport) to Singapore would commence within 30 days.
He said Singapore Airlines has come forward to operate direct flights between the two cities.
The APADCL conducted a survey to assess the "demand" and received 86,752 responses from people favouring introduction of flights between Vijayawada and Singapore.
A few months ago, Silk Air offered to run the chartered service but when the RFP was called, it did not respond.
APADCL CEO Virender Singh told PTI that no bids were received in response to the RFP floated on June 12.
"Hence, we have extended the deadline to July 10," he said.
The state government, sources said, was ready to spend Rs 30 crore to run the chartered service for six months and recoup the money through sale of tickets.
The fare from Vijayawada was to be fixed on par with the Hyderabad-Singapore rate.
The RFP stipulated that "Income accruals from the sale of tickets and other revenues will be required to be transferred to the state government."
Asked about this, the CEO said the government was "committed" to fund the flight operations from Vijayawada and the amount would depend on how much the airlines sought as VGF.
A senior official of the Airports Authority of India said there has been no bilateral traffic agreement for operating flights between Vijayawada and Singapore.
"Nobody has even applied for a slot (at the airport) and neither was there any discussion on the bilateral traffic agreement," the official said.
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