Air India has announced that beginning Friday, July 21, 2023, its flight which operates between Gatwick Airport in London and Dabolim will now land at Mopa.
In just 116 days since its inception and connecting to 25 destinations across India, MIA reached the milestone of one million passengers and the footfall made the Airport amongst the top 20 airports in India, as per the March 2023 domestic traffic data. On the other hand, Dabolim airport handled around 348 charter flights bringing in 1.40 lakh passengers during the financial year 2022-23 and the airport handled overall 8.35 million passengers during the year.
Though Oman Air had announced the shifting of its operations even before the Mopa airport was officially inaugurated, the airline is yet to start flying to and from the MIA. However, the recent developments have once again raised concerns amongst the stakeholders in the tourism and transportation industry in South Goa about the continuation of the Dabolim airport.
The unease continues also due to the order from the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India in August last year while granting its approval to the ad hoc tariff for aeronautical services at the MIA, indicating that the closure of Dabolim airport was inevitable. This resonated with the letter the Centre wrote to the Chief Secretary on May 1, 2000, communicating the Cabinet decision of the Government of India to set up the Mopa airport and the closure of the existing civilian airport on the commissioning of the new airport. Both the documents cemented the fears, despite Chief Minister Pramod Sawant trying to assure that domestic air traffic will continue at the Dabolim airport, including a statement during the winter session of the Legislative Assembly in January this year.
As promised by the ruling dispensation, Dabolim International Airport will continue to exist and function, albeit with far lesser traffic and passengers. With Air India shifting its UK flights to Mopa, the writing on the wall is clear, as scaling down the passenger traffic operations at Dabolim is inevitable. Air India is just the first in the list of airlines to shift their operations from Dabolim to MIA. As part of the privatisation of the aviation sector, MIA is operated by GMR Airports Limited and is amongst the many airports that the country will witness being operated by private players.
In a few months, as the tourism season resumes in the State, the roadmap for the coexistence of both airports will be clear. With Dabolim airport being the only choice until last season, it will be a decision to reckon with if the charter flights choose MIA as their desired destination instead of the Dabolim airport, as most of the passengers arriving on these charter flights are heading to the North of Goa. Therefore, commuting for these foreigners from MIA would rather be easier than from Dabolim.
In such a scenario, Dabolim Airport would continue as a domestic airport and provide international flight services at a much lesser frequency than currently. In addition, the option to enhance cargo handling at Dabolim will gain impetus. However, the government will have to redraw its plans for the development of South Goa.
In light of the Dabolim airport inching towards the inevitable, merely creating infrastructure that passes through the towns and villages of South Goa will not suffice, but creating avenues and destinations for tourist arrivals will recompense the losses.