Visakhapatnam International Airport will be closed from September 2026. Passenger flights will not be allowed. It will be used entirely by the Indian Navy’s Eastern Fleet for defense purposes. This was revealed at the Visakhapatnam Airport Advisory Committee meeting held on Monday under the chairmanship of MP M. Sri Bharat.
On this occasion, several members expressed doubts about the condition of Visakhapatnam Airport if the new international airport at Bhogapuram opens in June 2026. INS Dega officials and Airport Director Raja Reddy, who are overseeing the affairs of the Visakhapatnam Naval Air Station, clarified that if Bhogapuram opens on schedule, Visakhapatnam Airport will be closed from September of the same year.
It is known that the Navy is using Visakhapatnam Airport. Navy officials are working on increasing the length of the runway, which is currently 10,000 feet long, by 1,000 feet or 1,000 feet for future needs. These are expected to be completed by March. But the work is being delayed due to the nature of the soil. It is said that it will not be completed until August.
While this work is being done, the ‘Instrument Landing System (ILS)’ used for landing aircraft is being stopped. Due to the runway expansion work that has been going on for some time, there are technical obstacles in the ILS connection process with aircraft. Navy officials also made it clear in this meeting that there will be no ILS facility until the runway work is completed.
Similarly, Navy officials revealed that flight arrivals will not be allowed from 11 pm to 7 am from February to complete the runway work quickly. International services to Visakhapatnam Airport are arriving from Singapore, Bangkok, and Kuala Lumpur only after 11 pm. If they are not canceled, their schedules should be changed, otherwise they will stop arrivals from 12 pm to 8 am, Navy officials said.
The runway at Visakhapatnam airport is currently being used by both civil and naval aircraft. Civilian aircraft are being given only 12 slots per hour from 8 am to 8 pm. This means that six flights can arrive and depart. This does not allow for new flights. In this context, Visakhapatnam MP Sri Bharat has asked the Navy officials to increase the number of slots to 18. They have assured that they will not give all of them and will give only up to 15.