Vizag Flights Move to New Bhogapuram Airport Aug 17

If you have a flight booked to or from Visakhapatnam anytime after the middle of August, pay close attention to which airport code is actually printed on your ticket, because the city's air traffic is about to move to an entirely new location. Every commercial flight currently flying out of Visakhapatnam Airport, the Civil Enclave at INS Dega, will shift to the newly built Alluri Sitarama Raju International Airport at Bhogapuram starting at 00:01 hours on the night of August 17, 2026. This is not a gradual phase-in; airlines and officials have described it as a hard cutover at midnight, with the old airport's commercial side going dark and the new one taking over completely from that moment. The new airport was formally inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 1, as part of a broader Andhra Pradesh visit that also included projects worth over 17,900 crore rupees. But inauguration and actual commercial service are two different things, and that two-week gap is exactly the window travelers need to watch. Bhogapuram, built by GMR Group under a public-private partnership at a cost of roughly 4,592 crore rupees for its first phase, is designed to eventually handle 6 million passengers a year, with room to expand toward 40 million as demand grows. Its single runway stretches 3,800 meters, long enough for wide-body aircraft, a real upgrade over the older airport's more limited runway movements, which officials have cited as one of the main reasons for building a replacement in the first place. Here is the detail that matters most for anyone with an existing reservation: the three-letter airport code VTZ, which currently belongs to Visakhapatnam Airport, transfers to Bhogapuram at the same midnight cutover. That matters because most booking systems, boarding passes and flight-tracking apps identify your airport by that code rather than by city name, so a ticket showing VTZ for a date on or after August 17 should route you to Bhogapuram, not the old civil enclave. Airlines are expected to update passenger records automatically, but given how many moving parts are involved in this kind of transition, do not assume that is guaranteed. If you booked a Visakhapatnam flight for late August or beyond, confirm with your airline which physical airport you are actually flying from well before you leave for the airport, especially if you booked months ago before this cutover date was finalized. Geography is the other piece worth planning around, because Bhogapuram is not a short hop from the city center. It sits roughly 45 to 50 kilometers from Visakhapatnam, off National Highway 16, and the drive typically takes about an hour depending on traffic, compared with the old airport's far more central location. That is a meaningful difference if you were used to leaving home ninety minutes before a flight. For ground transport, Andhra Pradesh's state road transport corporation has planned dedicated electric bus services between the city and the new airport, with fares expected around 300 rupees, while taxis and app-based cabs are expected to run somewhere between 800 and 1,500 rupees depending on pickup point and vehicle type. If your travel dates fall right around the August 17 changeover, build in extra buffer time, since ride-hailing and shuttle networks around a brand-new airport tend to be less predictable in their first days of operation than they will be a few months in. On the airline side, Air India has confirmed it will operate daily service connecting Bhogapuram to Hyderabad and Bengaluru twice daily each, and Vijayawada four times daily, from the August 17 launch. Other carriers, including IndiGo, Air India Express, Akasa Air and SpiceJet, are expected to continue serving the market, though full published schedules for all of them were not yet confirmed at the time of writing, so it is worth checking your specific airline's site directly if you are booking a route beyond those three Air India connections. The old Civil Enclave at INS Dega does not disappear entirely; it will keep operating for the Indian Air Force, other armed forces, police and VIP government aircraft, but it is done handling paying passengers. So, practically, what should you do? If you already hold a Visakhapatnam-area booking for August 17 or later, check your airline's confirmation now for which airport it references, and again a few days before departure. If you are booking fresh travel to the region for late August or September, book with Bhogapuram in mind from the start and plan your ground transport accordingly, factoring in the roughly hour-long drive from the city rather than the shorter trip you may remember from the old airport. And if your trip falls right in the first few days after the cutover, give yourself extra margin, since new-airport teething issues around signage, transport and processing times are common in the initial weeks of any major airport transition anywhere in the world. Sources Alluri Sitarama Raju International Airport - Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alluri_Sitarama_Raju_International_Airport Visakhapatnam Commercial Flights to Shift to Bhogapuram's Alluri Sitarama Raju International Airport from August 17 - Indian Eagle - https://www.indianeagle.com/traveldiary/visakhapatnam-airport-commercial-flights-shift-bhogapuram-august-17/ Commercial Flight Operations From Visakhapatnam Airport To Shift To Bhogapuram From August 17 - ETV Bharat - https://www.etvbharat.com/en/bharat/flight-operations-to-shift-to-bhogapuram-from-visakhapatnam-airport-after-august-17-enn26072903329 Bhogapuram Flight Schedule: Air India Services Begin from August 17 - Indian Eagle - https://www.indianeagle.com/traveldiary/bhogapuram-airport-flight-schedule/ PM Modi inaugurates Alluri Sitarama Raju International Airport at Bhogapuram - Telangana Today - https://telanganatoday.com/pm-modi-inaugurates-alluri-sitarama-raju-international-airport-at-bhogapuram