An Air India Express aircraft. File
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
In what the city’s air travellers are calling a turning point for the region, the Alluri Sitarama Raju International Airport at Bhogapuram will get its first international flight on October 27.
From that date, Air India Express will operate direct, non-stop services connecting Visakhapatnam to Bangkok, after years of lobbying by local groups.
For decades, the industrial and commercial capital of Andhra Pradesh has lived with a limitation. Despite a large pharmaceutical sector, a major port, growing IT corridors and a big seafood export market, international connectivity has been a bottleneck. Travellers and business delegations have been routinely forced into domestic transits via Hyderabad, Chennai or New Delhi to catch connections abroad.
The Visakhapatnam-Bangkok route changes that.
The service follows sustained representations from the Andhra Pradesh Air Travellers Association (APATA), and answers a long-standing demand from north Andhra. By linking Visakhapatnam directly to Thailand’s capital, the route is expected to help multiple economic sectors, the association says.
According to the flight schedule released, Air India Express will operate the service twice a week.
Flight IX 904 will depart Visakhapatnam every Tuesday and Friday at 11.30 a.m., landing in Bangkok at 4 p.m. local time. The return flight, IX 903, will leave Bangkok at 2.10 a.m. on Wednesdays and Saturdays, arriving in Visakhapatnam at 3.55 a.m. With introductory one-way economy fares of between ₹16,300 and ₹19,400, the schedule suits both weekend leisure travellers and corporate commuters.
The association says the connection is more than a convenience for holidaymakers seeking Thai beaches or the Buddhist tourist circuits. Seafood exporters and bulk drug manufacturers in the Visakhapatnam Special Economic Zone corridor stand to gain from faster cargo routing, it says. The route also opens new avenues for medical tourism, bringing patients from Southeast Asia to north Andhra’s expanding hospitals while easing outbound travel for regional professionals.
With October 27 approaching, Visakhapatnam’s first international flight marks a turning point, the association says.
“It signals that Visakhapatnam is no longer just a regional player, but an emerging international gateway ready to claim its rightful place on the global aviation map,” said APATA representatives K. Kumar Raja, O. Naresh Kumar and D.S. Varma.
Published – September 09, 2026 12:42 pm IST
