Passenger occupancy likely to increase in flights from Vizag to Hyderabad

A multitude of people travel from Vizag to Hyderabad and vice versa on a regular basis. In recent years, the number of passengers flying between these two Telugu cities has only gone higher. Due to that, more and more flights are being added from Vizag to Hyderabad and vice versa. In June, more passenger traffic has been witnessed at the Visakhapatnam airport compared to the last month.

But when Covid-19 struck the country back in 2020 and again in April 2021, the nation came to a standstill and so did air travel between Vizag and Hyderabad. Even now, a lot of restrictions have been imposed on passengers flying from Vizag to Hyderabad and other cities. However, as the number of cases continues to decline as witnessed throughout June 2021, there are prospects of lesser restrictions on air travel and passenger occupancy between these two cities going higher in the coming days.

Talking with Yo! Vizag, K Vijay Mohan, Managing Director of Holiday World, shares how passenger occupancy is gradually returning to normalcy in flights from Vizag to Hyderabad.

“The occupancy had been low for the past few weeks. The flights were operating with only 30 to 40 percent occupancy. In the first week of June 2021, the rate was around 40 percent. But it has risen to 60-65 percent in the second week. This week, flight loads have been around 80% and the flights scheduled from Vizag to Hyderabad for this weekend are nearly full.”

To explain further, he drew a contrast, talking about the flights from Vizag to New Delhi and other Indian cities. “Passenger occupancy has not picked up as much for Vizag to Hyderabad flights as for Vizag to Delhi flights. Till 14 June, a lot of restrictions were imposed by the Delhi Government on passengers travelling from AP. But now that those restrictions have been removed, I believe that the passenger occupancy for Delhi flights from Vizag will slowly levitate. Flights from Vizag to Chennai are not doing well. But for Bangalore, the occupancy rate has been good. When I spoke to Indigo flights earlier, they said that the passenger occupancy for Bangalore flights has picked up. Vizag to Chennai flights are performing badly for most airlines. That’s the scenario as of now.”

According to him, more freedom for passengers travelling on flights from Vizag to Hyderabad and other routes, with higher passenger occupancy can be expected from 1 July 2021. Right now, domestic flights are only performing well for metro cities.

Talking about the flights planned from Vizag to Kurnool, Mr. Mohan shared, “these flights were supposed to operate under the Udaan scheme at this point, but it has been put under hold for some time because the load factor is an issue. So, if we operate an airline suddenly under the Udaan scheme, that too under this environment, it would appear as if we are doing it for reimbursement. We will come under questioning from the Government for operating under the shutdown model. True Jet has also applied under the Udaan scheme, for flights from Kurnool to Vizag, Vijaywada and Tirupati. But Tirupati shelved the idea. To compete with Indigo on the matters of capacity is a difficult prospect. If Indigo reduces its price even for a month, other flight companies will suffer drastically. True Jet was announced first but eventually, Indigo took over.”

Non-stop flights from Vizag to Hyderabad and vice versa