Vijayawada Airport bags 61% growth rate

Vijayawada, June 21: The Vijayawada airport bagged the highest growth rate of 61 percent in air passenger traffic in the months of March-April from the last year in the corresponding period.

This is making Andhra Pradesh the fastest-growing state in the country's civil aviation sector.

While the Visakhapatnam airport received 3,71,847 passengers last year in the month of April- March, the number reached to 4,86,345 this year with a growth per cent of 33 per cent.

The Vijayawada (Gannavaram) airport witnessed a big leap in the traffic from 4,03,332 to 6,49,963 passengers registering 61 per cent growth rate. Rajmundry had the lowest growth rate of 17 per cent when compared to other airports with a jump in the number passengers in 2016 (April- March) 2,24,161 to 2,61,758 this year.

The figures show that in those two months last year four airports received 27,72,479 passengers. The number escalated to 37,53,343 in this year.

The green field airports proposed at Bhogapuram (Vizianagaram), Dagadarthi (Nellore) and Orvakal (Kurnool) have nearly completed land acquisition.

"We have set an ambitious target of compeleting the Orvakal airport in 12 months. The project is being implemented in PPP mode with a cost of 100 crore where the state government has provided land" said top officials.

The growth rate of airports in AP is much higher than national average" said officials.