Flying high: airline operators increase services from Visakhapatnam to Bengaluru to cash in on demand

Railways have been ignoring the pleas of passengers for a direct train to Bengaluru and a direct train, which ran to full capacity for two years, was withdrawn

Akasa Air will soon fly between Visakhapatnam and Bengaluru twice a day. It will start with a single flight on December 10 and increase the frequency to twice daily from December 12. This indicates the immense potential as there are already four flights operating between these two cities.

The flights, presently operating between Visakhapatnam and Bengaluru are AirAsia and IndiGo, which together operate 33 flights a week. Once Akasa takes to the skies from Vizag, the number will increase to 47 trips a week. What’s more, there is hardly a 15-minute gap between IndiGo and Akasa Air.

“Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, there were eight non-stop flights flying between Vizag and Bengaluru on a daily basis They used to have very good loads. But the lockdown and withdrawal of flights due to the pandemic changed the situation,” says Ravi Teja, a frequent traveller between these two cities.

Meanwhile, the passenger footfall at Visakhapatnam International Airport has increased in October compared to the previous month. The total number of passengers increased from 1,72,332 in September to 1,94,103 in October. While the domestic passengers increased from 1,67,945 to 1,88,257, the international passengers showed only a marginal increase from 5,387 to 5,846 during the corresponding period.

The marginal increase can be explained due to the non-restoration of the Vizag – Dubai and Vizag – Kuala Lumpur flights. “We have not received any communication from the airline operators on restoration of these two flights,’‘ says Airport Director K. Srinivasa Rao.

The railways have, however, failed to cash in on the overwhelming demand and have been ignoring the plea of passengers for a direct train to Bengaluru. Union Minister of Culture and Tourism G. Kishan Reddy had written to his counterpart in the Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw, on March 4, 2022, on the injustice done to Visakhapatnam, the largest city in Andhra Pradesh, by extending the Prasanthi express to Bhubaneswar, which had led to the curtailment of the allocated reservation quota. He sought the starting of a regular daily train from Visakhapatnam to Bengaluru.

A weekly tatkal fare express 06579/80, run by South Western Railway (SWR) between October 2016 and November 2018, had an average occupancy of 135%. This train was discontinued, and an assurance on its restoration, given by the previous Railway Minister Piyush Goyal in the Rajya Sabha on December 21, 2018, was not kept, says a former Member of  Zonal Railway Users Consultative Committee (ZRUCC) N. Gajapathi Rao.