VASCO: The Director of Airport Authority of India (AAI), Goa Airport, BCH Negi, said that AAI has turned down the request of the Navy to reduce the frequency of flights at Goa airport from April onwards when the summer schedule comes into force.
He said the issue of reducing flight operations at Dabolim from April has been going on for several months, however, AAI and airlines companies have not agreed to it.
Due to increased traffic at Dabolim, the Navy, which provides air traffic support to Dabolim, is finding it difficult to handle the traffic during peak hours and wanted AAI to reduce the number of flights between 12.30 pm and 2.30 pm by about 15 flights.
“There was a request from Indian Navy to cut down the number of flights from the forthcoming summer schedule which starts from March 28, but we have not agreed to it. At our level we have requested them to maintain the flight schedule as it is. Indian Navy had given a written request to curtail the flights but at least till now, it has not been agreed to. I don’t know what is being decided at a higher level but at the moment even airline companies have refused to curtail the number of flights,” Negi said.
Sources at Dabolim airport told Herald that not only the Navy but even AAI has been facing a tough time handling operations during peak hours (between 1 pm and 4.30 pm) due to congestion in flight movement.
Sources said that AAI attempted to find a solution for this and offered suggestions to Navy to reduce their restriction period. Similarly AAI also made efforts to convince the State government to make changes in the hotel check-in check-out timing and requested the government to convert the 12 noon check in-check out timing into 24 hours which is the international standard.
“As Goa has 12 noon check-in check-out timings, tourists leaving Goa mostly book their flights in the afternoon. Due to this all airlines want to have more passengers and have scheduled more operations in the afternoon and this has contributed to congestion at airport during this period of the day. Our request to the government for 24 hours check-in check-out timings was, however, not addressed,” sources said.
Sources confirmed that at all co-ordination meetings, as well as at other forums, AAI has been raising the issue that Goa should make efforts to change hotel check-in check-out timings and convert the same into 24 hours so that airlines can then run operations during other convenient timings and this would be a win-win situation for tourists and airlines and would indirectly help AAI in resolving congestion at Dabolim.
Traffic, no doubt, is very high at Dabolim, however, in the afternoon hour and due to naval restrictions between 8 am to 12.30 pm, there is a skewed un-optimal use of the runway facilities and the terminal building. If the same traffic was evenly spread then such congestion would reduce.
Interestingly, the Navy today has been speaking the opposite of what its Goa chief had said on December 4, 2016. Flag Officer Naval Aviation and Flag Officer Goa Area (FOGA) Rear Admiral Puneet Kumar Bahl, while speaking at 45th Navy Day celebrations, had claimed that Dabolim Airport is providing 24 hours of commercial flight operations which in turn provided a huge fillip to the economy as the airport has witnessed a steep rise in inflow of tourist traffic and charter flights. Surprisingly, the Navy now wants to cut down flight operations which will not benefit the State.
