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Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu launched the test flight of a seaplane on the Krishna river in Vijayawada on Wednesday.
“With a long coastline, rivers and reservoirs, Andhra Pradesh has great potential for developing tourism by introducing seaplanes,” he said on the occasion.
Asking SpiceJet to make Amaravati its aviation hub, the Chief Minister urged Union Minister for Civil Aviation Ashok Gajapati Raju to frame regulations as early as possible to introduce seaplanes in the State to promote tourism.
The Chief Minister said tourism plays an important role in generating employment and development of service sectors. He said there was great potential for developing heli-tourism in Tirupati and Visakhapatnam.
The Chief Minister appealed to the Union Minister to make efforts to allot slots in Delhi and Mumbai airports for introducing more number of services from Andhra Pradesh.
The second test flight of the seaplane was conducted here on Wednesday, while the first was conducted off the west coast recently.
Gajapati Raju said that once the runway was extended at Gannavaram airport, international flights and landing of bigger aircraft would be possible.
SpiceJet CMD Ajay Singh said Vijayawada-Delhi, Mumbai, and Delhi-Tirupati services would be introduced in summer schedule. Describing the seaplane services as a revolutionary project, he said the company is ready to buy 100 seaplanes to meet the demand in the country. He said smaller cities have tremendous potential and they should be placed on the country’s aviation map.
State Minister for Tourism B Akhila Priya also spoke.
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