International flights from Tirupati from Sept

Tirupati: For the first time since Tirupati airport was declared as the international airport in 2017, an international flight is likely to land and take off in September. To begin with, Air India will operate flights from Tirupati to Kuwait and Kuwait to Tirupati. This would help people from Rayalaseema region who visit the Middle East in large numbers.

So far, they have either to go to Chennai or Bengaluru to catch a flight to the Middle East.

As per the requirements for an international airport, the Government of India had set up customs, immigration and health wings and appointed necessary staff a few years ago and everyone felt that the international flights would soon start operating. But it did not happen and the staff were sent back to their parent departments. On the contrary, Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam which were given the status of international airports had started operating flights to different countries.

However, not the travel agents are of the view that once the international flights become a reality, the tourist traffic will further increase.

Tirupati MP Dr M Gurumoorthy had recently met Air India CEO Alok Singh and Civil Aviation Minister Jyothiraditya Scindia in New Delhi and explained the need to operate direct flights from Tirupati to Kuwait to begin with.

He said Tirupati footfall of passengers has been increasing year after year. He said in 2016 it was around 4.82 lakhs. During 2022-23, it had gone up to 9.19 lakh passengers. If International flights start operating, then the footfall would be much higher.

He told the Centre that not just tourism traffic but others like industrialists and business people come to Tirupati in large numbers since the city had now grown into an educational hub with several universities and national Institutes. It has electronic manufacturing clusters besides having the advantage of the integrated business city Sri City. As such, it has a lot of potential to ease of doing international business from this region. Also, thousands of people travel to Kuwait from Rayalaseema districts regularly.

In view of all these factors, it would be better to operate flights between Tirupati and Kuwait for which both the CEO and the minister have responded positively, the MP added.

He told Hans India that in the next few months the first flight to Kuwait may fly from Tirupati and the response may pave the way for more international flights to other destinations as well.