Hero Image

Visakhapatnam: Flyers want more red-eye flights to save on time, money

Visakhapatnam: As flights scheduled to depart late at night gain popularity among domestic passengers pressed for time and scouting for bargain options, the demand for direct red-eye flights to and from Visakhapatnam has increased.

Presently, fliers flying in to or out from the Port City rely on red-eye flights via Hyderabad or Bangalore, which have high load factors.



“Owing to the withdrawal of a few flights from Visakhapatnam in the past couple of years, airfare to and from Visakhapatnam tends to remain on the higher side. As a result, passengers are opting for red eye flights,” said Anil Punjabi, regional chairman of the Travel Agents Federation of India.

For example, Air India operates the only Visakhapatnam-Mumbai flight that takes off from Visakhapatnam at 9.30 pm. Owing to the high fare of this flight, fliers prefer to take the Visakhapatnam-Hyderabad IndiGo flight that takes off at 10.05 pm. From Hyderabad, they take the red-eye Hyderabad-Mumbai flight that departs at 12.20 am.

Similarly, a Mumbai-Visakhapatnam Air India flight takes off from Mumbai at 7.10 pm and lands in Visakhapatnam at 8.50 pm but more passengers book the IndiGo Mumbai-Hyderabad flight that takes off from Mumbai at 12.55 am and an early morning Hyderabad-Visakhapatnam flight.

The IndiGo Visakhapatnam-Hyderabad-Mumbai flight fare is normally around 45 per cent cheaper than Air India’s direct Visakhapatnam-Mumbai flight, said aviation experts.

“Fliers on leisure trips and even corporates on a cost-cutting spree are looking for the red-eye option. It’s high time that airlines consider a few direct red-eye flights from Visakhapatnam,” added Punjabi.

Visakhapatnam Airport director Prakash Reddy confirmed that there is no restriction from the Navy on flight timings . “We can operate flights for 24 hours. The airlines have to show interest to operate late night flights,” he added.

Airlines officials said that under the present system they operate red-eye flights only from metros and big cities.

“With big airports becoming saturated, the time is not far when we start operating direct red-eye flights from tier-II and tier-III cities. However, we are a bit apprehensive about clearances from Navy airports like Goa and Visakhapatnam,” said a senior IndiGo official.

READ ON APP