Bhogapuram airport: First test flight lands at Vizag international airport

The inaugural test flight was completed with a successful landing at Bhogapuram International Airport on January 4, 2026.

The Alluri Sitharama Raju greenfield international airport at Bhogapuram will open for operations on June 26, with 97% of the work completed, and only civil and interior jobs pending.

"Congratulations to the people of Andhra Pradesh, especially Uttarandhra, on the successful validation flight of the Bhogapuram Greenfield International Airport. Today marks a new milestone for aviation in the state, strengthening regional connectivity and giving a major boost to Uttarandhra as the region prepares to take off. I thank Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi Ji for his vision, leadership, and commitment to the progress of Andhra Pradesh. The airport, planned and initiated during the NDA government’s tenure between 2014 and 2019, will be ready to serve our people with commercial flight operations from June," said Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu.



The Bhogapuram airport, the second greenfield one in the country after Mumbai, is built to sustain severe cyclones. It can face wind velocity of 275 kmph and rain of 27 cm.

GMR Visakhapatnam International Airport Limited (GVIAL), a subsidiary of GMR Airports Limited (GAL), is developing a Greenfield International Airport at Bhogapuram, Vizianagaram in Andhra Pradesh on Public Private Partnership (PPP) model with an initial capacity of six million passengers per annum that is scalable.

The proposed Greenfield airport site lies on the border of Visakhapatnam and Vizianagaram districts, and is approximately 45 km from Visakhapatnam through NH-16 (Old NH-5) and 25 km from Vizianagaram via NH-43. The site is strategically located on the east coast and stands to get benefitted from the vast catchment area surrounding the region.

Union Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu said that while the airport was originally scheduled to be completed by June 2026, the inauguration will be advanced by a month.

During a review in November 2025, he had announced that 91.7 per cent of the airport works have been completed.

The foundation stone of the project, which is estimated to cost Rs 4,700 crore, was laid in 2015 when Ashok Gajapati Raju was the civil aviation minister and N Chandrababu Naidu was the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh. The central govt granted all necessary permissions in 2016, following which the govt acquired 2,700 acres for the project. The original completion plan was 2023, but the project faced delays due to various reasons.