Singapore-Vijayawada flights from Dec 4

Vijayawada: The launch of the first international flight service from Vijayawada to Singapore from December 4 will herald a new era in the history of Amaravati, said Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu. 

During a teleconference with the officials, the Chief Minister said it is one of the significant milestones in the journey of building the best world class capital city at Amaravati and absolutely a boon to economic development.

He has asked officials to put serious efforts on increasing air connectivity worldwide from airports in the state to bring global exposure to the capital city Amaravati and also give a boost to economic activities across the State.

“My efforts to attract national and international investors to Amaravati have yielded results with several global players chosen Amaravati as their destination despite of AP being a newly bifurcated State. It is the credit of our government.

As a result, rapid development in various sectors such as development of the new capital city, new infrastructure projects, major industries and increasing investments has triggered passenger traffic at Vijayawada Airport which tripled over the last 4-5 years”, he said.

The Chief Minister asked officials to make all out efforts for improving aviation infrastructure with global standards to provide reliable and direct air connectivity to all regions in the state that would help to take the present development activity to the next level,” he said.  

Principal Secretary for Energy and APCRDA, Ajay Jain briefed the Chief Minister that the State government was making efforts in this direction and proposed routes- Vijayawada-Puttaparthi-Vijayawada (twice daily) and Vijayawada-Nagarjuna sagar-Vijayawada (once daily). “The routes shall be operated by 9-seater aircraft. Tenders have already finalised,” he said.

He said the State government would provide viability gap funding (VGF) for the twice-weekly nonstop direct flight services between Vijayawada and Singapore. Indi Go, in collaboration with AP government, would deploy 180-seater airbus A 320. State government was also working seriously on operating flight services to Dubai in coming 3-6 months, he added.

Virender Singh, MD and CEO, APADCL, said that the booking for the flights from Vijayawada to Singapore have already been open on the corporate website of Indigo Airlines.

As per correspondence from Indigo Airlines on 13th November 2018, more than 50 per cent seats have been reserved for the flights schedule in December 2018. It is estimated that around 80 per cent seats are likely to be occupied during the inaugural flight. Minister P Narayana and several CMO officials were also present.