The Air Travellers' Association (ATA) has blamed the Indian Navy for not allowing round the clock operations at the Visakhapatnam airport. The Singapore national carrier Silk Air was slated to operate a direct service from Visakhapatnam to Singapore from October 1. It had asked for the extension of watch hour by end of July.

Now Silk Air is contemplating whether to go ahead with its plans to introduce a direct flight, as the deadlock over running the airport 24 hours a day continues.

For now, the airport, which is under the control of the Navy, runs operations only up to 8pm. But Silk Air has sought permission from the airport authorities to land its flight at 11pm. Sources said the Singapore carrier was still uncertain as the Eastern Naval Command (ENC) has not given its consent yet to make the airport operational 24 hours as per a report in TOI.

Out of Rs 300 crore spent on the airport modernisation, the defence ministry had spent Rs 140 crore on runway and the balance of Rs 160 crore was spent on night landing facilities and new terminal building.

The ATA asked the ENC authorities if they were unable to operate the airport round the clock, they should immediately hand over the air traffic control (ATC), runaway maintenance and fire safety to the Airports Authority of India to operate the airport.

ATA president D Varada Reddy said some of the Indian carriers were also keen to operate flights to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok. "The city economy and tourism sector would grow only if the ENC leaves the control on Visakhapatnam airport," he said.

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