VASCO: Admitting a drop in passengers’ footfall, Director of Goa Airport Dhanamjaya Rao on Wednesday ruled out the possibility of shutting down the Dabolim International Airport.
Reacting to the Qatar Airways announcement to shift its operations from Dabolim airport to Mopa international airport from June this year, Rao said that the airlines operator take their own decisions and that the Airport Authority had to respect their decision. He said that Qatar Airways was one flight daily from Doha-Qatar to Goa.
Admitting that there has been decline in the number of passengers and flights operations after the commissioning of Mopa airport in December 2022, Rao said that the Dabolim airport handled 8.4 million passengers in the financial year 2023-24 but in the current financial year, it had handled around seven million passengers. This means there was a difference of around 15 to 20 per cent in the figures.
Rao reiterated that Dabolim airport will remain operational.
Rao disclosed that it will receive additional flights in the coming summer schedule.
“We may have new sectors in March between Goa to Pune and Hyderabad. As of now, we are ready for any operations with all the slots and if any airline wants to operate to any sector, we are ready to give them slots,” he said, adding, “There is no threat to Dabolim airport as of now and this airport will survive because it has a good potential."
According to Rao, most of the Charter flights were operating from Dabolim airport barring one international operator and ruled out any pressure from the government to any airlines operator to move out of Dabolim airport.