Alluri Sitarama Raju International Airport Opened at Bhogapuram on 1 August 2026, Ahead of Its December 2026 Contract Date, and Took All of Visakhapatnam's Scheduled Flights on 17 August

Alluri Sitarama Raju International Airport, built on 2,203 acres at Bhogapuram in Andhra Pradesh’s Vizianagaram district, was inaugurated by the Prime Minister on 1 August 2026. Scheduled flying began there on 17 August, when the services that had flown from Visakhapatnam moved to it. The Press Information Bureau (PIB), the government’s release agency, gives its cost as over ₹5,640 crore and its first-phase capacity as 6 million passengers a year.

Two dates, 1 August and 17 August

The Prime Minister walked through the passenger terminal at about 11 am on 1 August and opened the airport at about 11.30 am, according to the PIB’s schedule of 31 July. The same visit included projects worth over ₹17,900 crore elsewhere in the state. Akashvani News reported that the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and the Union Civil Aviation Minister briefed the Prime Minister on the airport’s features.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation then fixed 17 August for the start of scheduled flying. IANS, the news agency, reported that a notification took effect at 12.01 am that day, closing scheduled operations at the Visakhapatnam civil enclave and moving the airport’s three-letter IATA code, VTZ, to Bhogapuram. Tickets that say VTZ now mean the new airport.

The first morning of flights

IndiGo flight 6E 6408 from Hyderabad landed at about 6.45 am on 17 August, The Week and Deccan Chronicle reported, and received a water-cannon salute. An Air India Express flight from Bengaluru followed. The Union Civil Aviation Minister flagged off the services and handed boarding passes to passengers, and arriving passengers were given traditional Etikoppaka toys.

IANS counted 31 services scheduled for the first day, linking Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Tirupati. The Daily Pioneer counted 52 air traffic movements, which is a count of every landing and take-off. Both the Pioneer and a summary of GMR Airports’ stock exchange filing say the day also carried an IndiGo service to Abu Dhabi and a Scoot service to Singapore. Air India said it would run 14 weekly flights between Bhogapuram and Delhi.

GMR Visakhapatnam International Airport Limited (GVIAL), the company running the airport, quoted its chief executive, Kanwarbir Singh Kalra, as calling the launch “a transformational moment for North Andhra Pradesh”. The Union Civil Aviation Minister said it marked “a new chapter for North Andhra”, in remarks the Deccan Chronicle carried.

A 3,800-metre runway and a roof drawn from Andhra’s cottages

The runway is 3,800 metres long. IANS and the GMR filing summary call it Code E, a category that covers wide-body jets, and IANS lists the Boeing 777, the 787 Dreamliner and the Airbus A330 and A340 among the types it can take. The PIB’s release of May 2023 described it as enabled for Category I instrument landings, which lets aircraft land in lower visibility.

The terminal covers 77,342 square metres. Air India’s release, reported by Akashvani News, lists 22 check-in counters, 18 self-baggage-drop units and seven aerobridges, the covered walkways to aircraft doors. The PIB says the roof profile reflects the traditional Chuttilu cottages of Andhra Pradesh and the landscapes of the Araku Valley, and that its flowing form represents a flying fish.

The PIB’s list of technology includes artificial intelligence, Building Information Modelling, which is a shared digital model of the building, an Airport Predictive Operations Centre, biometric passenger processing and automated baggage handling. For sustainability it lists a 5 MW solar plant, rainwater harvesting, electric vehicle charging and low-energy lighting and air conditioning. It adds that the terminal is registered with the U.S. Green Building Council.

The airport sits inside a larger integrated project of 2,703.26 acres, IANS and Construction World reported, which includes a 500-acre aviation hub and a 136.63-acre aviation university and EduCity site. The 2023 PIB release also planned a cargo terminal of 5,000 square metres. The Week put the airport 44 km from Visakhapatnam and 23 km from Vizianagaram.

What the airport cost, as the sources give it

The PIB’s pre-inauguration release says the airport was developed under the public-private partnership model “at a cost of over ₹5,640 crore”, and Akashvani News and Business Today repeat that figure. The Deccan Chronicle and the Daily Pioneer give ₹5,700 crore, Construction World reported “Rs 50 billion”, and IANS gave a construction cost of nearly ₹4,727 crore on 16 August. The PIB’s 2023 estimate for the first phase alone was ₹4,592 crore. This article uses the PIB’s figure and flags the others because the sources do not say whether they count land, financing or later additions.

From foundation stone to opening

The state’s then Chief Minister laid the foundation stone on 3 May 2023, according to the PIB. PTI reported in 2024 that a 40-year design, build, finance, operate and transfer concession had been awarded to GVIAL, a GMR Airports subsidiary, in 2020. Under that model the private company builds and runs the airport for the concession period and then hands it back.

A GMR Group representative said in December 2025 that almost 80 per cent of the infrastructure work was complete, that the contractual completion date was December 2026 and that GMR was aiming for July. IANS wrote that the airport finished nearly five months ahead of schedule, and GKToday said the same. The first validation flight landed on 4 January 2026, The Week reported, and CAPA Centre for Aviation reported that the Ministry of Civil Aviation awarded the aerodrome licence in July. A formal inauguration had first been planned for 26 June, The Week noted in January, before the 1 August date was set.

What happens to the old airport

Visakhapatnam’s airport shares its facilities with the Navy’s INS Dega air base, and the 2023 PIB release records that the civil enclave there would close for 30 years from the start of operations at Bhogapuram. An earlier Rajya Sabha reply of March 2017 states the same condition for the greenfield airport’s approval. Swarajya’s report on the July 2026 notification says the closure applies to scheduled commercial flights only, and that military flying and non-scheduled flights continue.

The last scheduled flight from the old airport was IndiGo 6E 2018 to Delhi on 16 August, according to The Week and Deccan Chronicle. Deccan Chronicle reported that air-conditioned buses and 20 electric buses were arranged between Visakhapatnam and Bhogapuram on the opening day, and Akashvani News reported Air India’s move of all its Visakhapatnam services the same morning.

The roads, the grid and the chip plant announced the same day

The airport was the centre of a larger package. The PIB’s release lists the foundation stone of Andhra Pradesh’s first semiconductor manufacturing facility approved under the India Semiconductor Mission, to make about 96 million chips a year, with an investment of over ₹460 crore. It also lists power transmission schemes for the Kurnool and Anantapur renewable energy zones and national highway work worth over ₹1,880 crore.

Access to the airport itself is being widened. The Deccan Chronicle reported seven major road projects, including the Sontyam road, and a sanctioned Beach Corridor between Visakhapatnam and the airport. For the national picture, India’s airport count and the openings at Navi Mumbai and Noida are covered in a separate article, and the state’s government, economy and geography in another. The airport is named for the freedom fighter who is the subject of a history of the Rampa rebellion.

What comes next

The PIB’s 2023 plan had three phases, rising from 6 million passengers a year to 12 million and then 18 million. GMR and the reports of the opening speak of a master plan of more than 40 million. The two figures have not been reconciled in anything this article opened, and neither is a forecast of when demand will get there.

On 27 October 2026 the Ministry of Civil Aviation’s review of Cyclonic Storm Arnab, published by the PIB, said operations at Visakhapatnam had been suspended since that afternoon and that a Delhi to Bhogapuram service was cancelled for 28 October.