# Visakhapatnam airport shuts down, staff in tears at farewell 2026-08-17T19:05:41+00:00 | India | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 1 independent outlet (2 source reports) Visakhapatnam airport ceased operations at midnight on Sunday, with all flights shifting to the new Alluri Sitarama Raju International Greenfield Airport at Bhogapuram. Tupaki.com reports that about 80 per cent of the old airport's staff have been let go, leading to an emotional farewell on Monday morning. Women employees in uniform broke down, saying their bond of 15 to 20 years with the airport was being severed, and that their distress was more about losing that connection than the jobs themselves. The Bhogapuram airport began operations with a flight from Singapore landing late Sunday. However, the contract company at the new facility hired fresh staff, leaving out the Visakhapatnam workforce. Tupaki.com adds that changed regulations also prevented some women from qualifying, though a minister promised alternative arrangements. Full flight services, including IndiGo and Air India, started from Bhogapuram on Monday. ## Coverage - tupaki.com - tupaki.com (2) This story was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above. Tags: Air India, Bhogapuram, IndiGo, Visakhapatnam Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/visakhapatnam-airport-shuts-down-staff-in-tears-at-farewell/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/visakhapatnam-airport-shuts-down-staff-in-tears-at-farewell/#story-in-brief Review state: restored archive article, accurate at time of publication, not offered to search indexes. How this brief was made: an AI model read the reports linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. Stance labels are editorial classifications of how each outlet framed this story, assigned by the same model, not ratings of the outlets. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/