Recently, Vijayawada International Airport conducted a test flight, permitting it to manage large airplane carrying VVIPs and passengers. The aircraft in context is the retrofitted Boeing 777-300ER, serving as Air India One. It is the carrier that serves India’s President, Vice President, and Prime Minister. The airport serving the city of the South Indian state of Andhra Pradesh also extended its runway length from 7,500 ft to 11,024 ft. With this, the airport becomes eligible to handle such large aircrafts.
It was towards the end of the last month that the 777-300ER made a successful test flight at the airport. As per a report by the Deccan Chronicle, the airplane travelled from New Delhi and conducted an “overshoot flight". The Boeing 777-300ER flew very low over the runway and then continued on its flight ahead. At the time, the aircraft was not accommodating any passengers as the mission was meant to ascertain if the new runway was technically armed for future VVIP arrivals in large airplanes.
The Government of India had borrowed Air India’s Boeing 747-400 for the longest time to conduct these VVIP flights. By the end of last year, India received its first custom-made VVIP fleet of two furnished Boeing 777-300ERs. The two aircrafts were part of Air India’s commercial fleet for a brief period of time. The fleet comes stocked with state-of-the-art missile defense technology and an advanced communication system.
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Just last month, one of the two aircrafts got stuck at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited Airport in Bengaluru while cruising during a routine training flight. The extended runway at the airport has been operational this year July onwards.
The biggest carrier operating out of Vijayawada’s airport is the Airbus A320. With the longer runway, the airport is equipped to host larger aircrafts such as the Boeing 777 and Airbus A330.
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