Visakhapatnam Airport staff poses for a picture
Hyderabad: The outsourcing staff members at the Visakhapatnam Airport were emotional and apprehensive as operations at the airport came to an end on Monday, August 17.
Commercial flight services were transferred to the newly inaugurated Alluri Sitarama Raju International Airport at Bhogapuram, leaving the staff worried about their future.
The staff, including porters, sanitation workers, and other support staff, gathered at the old Visakhapatnam Airport premises. Some of them were employed at the airport for 20 or 30 years and said that the closure has left them in the lurch.
They also alleged that contractors did not provide any clarity and had distanced themselves from responsibility after operations shifted to Bhogapuram.
Videos shared on social media showed some staff members being emotional while others posed for pictures with their colleagues, perhaps for the last time.
The Visakhapatnam Airport has ceased operations since Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Bhogapuram Airport on August 1. The GMR Group has constructed the new airport for Rs 5,000 crore at Bhogapuram in the Vizianagaram district of Andhra Pradesh.
The AP government sees the new facility not merely as an infrastructure project but as a transformational asset for the entire North Andhra region.
Designed to handle six million passengers annually in the first phase, the airport also has a master plan to expand its capacity to 40 million passengers annually.
Commercial operations of the airport began on August 17.
With inputs from PTI
This post was last modified on August 18, 2026 3:55 pm