National airline Air India launched a flight service between Visakhapatnam and Port Blair, which would reduce the travel time between the two destinations by a significant amount.
Port Blair is the headquarters for the Indian district of South Andaman, and the local administrative sub-division (tehsil).
Till now, travellers would either take the sea route or travel through other metros involving a night stay to reach Port Blair from Viskhapatnam or vice versa.
The state-run carrier already connects Port Blair to Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Bhubaneswar.
The flight AI487/488 will operate with an all economy 168-seater A320 aircraft would be in addition to Air India’s already existing flights to the island from other domestic airports, a release said.
The new direct air service would help capacity addition to this tourist destination besides a time saver for passengers to two places, it said.
It would also give a fillip to tourism and industry at both the places, the release added.