HYDERABAD, January 13:The first flight from Visakhapatnam to Dubai, to be inaugurated by Union Civil Aviations Minister Ajit Singh, will take off on March 27, Rajya Sabha member T Subbarami Reddy announced at a news conference in the port city. Air India will start operations to Dubai from the port city via Hyderabad and the first flight is scheduled to take off on
March 27. The Air India flight, with a capacity of 150 passengers, will depart for Dubai at 6.30pm from Visakhapatnam on a regular basis, he said, adding he had already discussed with the the Union government the proposal for modernisation of the Visakhapatnam airport and for night landing facility. Observing that against just one flight in 1999, Reddy said the Visakhapatnam airport had grown and now handled 40 services connecting Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and
Tirupati. The Congress lawmaker said he would also try to bring more airliners like Spicejet, Indigo and Air Arabia to operate flights to and from Visakhapatnam, which has an integrated terminal capable of handling both domestic and international flights. Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) from Andhra Pradesh in Dubai will now have an additional destination in the state with Air India all set to start operations from the north coastal city of Visakhapatnam.
