Singapore-Vijayawada IndiGo flights from today

Vijayawada: All set for the launch of international flight services from Vijayawada Airport (Gannavaram) on Tuesday. IndiGo Airlines is operating the 180-seat Airbus from Singapore to Vijayawada and back. The flight arrives in Vijayawada Airport at 3.45 pm and will depart at 6.40 pm every Tuesday and Thursday. 

Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu will attend flight arrival programme. On the other hand, Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu will attend the flight departure programme at 6.40 pm.

IndiGo will operate bi-weekly services basing on a condition that the state government should pay the viability gap fund to the airlines in case the passenger traffic is below 50 per cent. Vijayawada Airport will become the second airport in the state with international connectivity after Vizag Airport.

 The Vijayawada Airport was declared international airport in 2015 but taken nearly three years to operate international services after developing infrastructure facilities.

The state government is hopeful of passenger traffic between Vijayawada and Singapore will be more than 50 per cent of seating capacity. 

The government’s incentive to IndiGo Airlines to operate two return flights per week basis with indicative round the trip ticket price of Rs 18,881 per passenger. For 180 seats, the indicative ticket price is Rs 33,98,580 for each trip.

If the passenger traffic is less than 50 per cent, the government has to pay the difference to the airlines. As part of the agreement the government released initial payment of Rs 3 crore. 

It is not known how great the demand for Vijayawada-Singapore services will be. Most passengers in the state so far are habituated to travel by Hyderabad, Vizag and Chennai to catch Singapore flights.

Every month, IndiGo Airlines may operate between eight and ten return flight services. For eight return flights in a month the charges will be Rs 2,71,88,640 for 180 seats. 

President of the Andhra Pradesh Food Processing Industry Federation Potluri Bhaskar Rao said the government is hopeful that the passenger traffic between Vijayawada-Singapore would cross 50 per cent and the government need not pay the Viability Gap Fund. 

He sent a letter to the Civil Aviation Ministry stating that there is a need to increase more domestic services from Vijayawada to cities like Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Bhubaneswar, Cochin and Kolkata, etc and international connectivity to the cities like Dubai.