At least 34 direct flights to operate to and from Goa’s new Mopa airport

The new airport named as Manohar International Airport (MIA) which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday is set to commence operations from January 5, 2023

The new Goa airport in Mopa will now have double flights than the current capacity of direct flights operating to and from Goa, airport officials said.

As of now, the new airport will handle about 200 air traffic movements per day. (PIB)

The new airport named as Manohar International Airport (MIA) which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday is set to commence operations from January 5, 2023.

The greenfield airport in Goa, is expected to bring respite to passengers from air high fares to and from Goa, which officials have been attributing to the four-hour closure of the airport every day.

This closure is for sorties by the Indian Navy which owns the existing airport in Dabolim.

“The current Dabolim airport sees 17 direct domestic flights. Whereas from our interactions with the airline operators and our own market study, we should be able to at least bring another 17 to 20 new destinations. So, we should be able to look at double direct connectivity than that of the existing connections with the Dabolim airport,” RV Sheshan, CEO, GMR Goa International Airport Ltd (GGIAL) said.

As of now, only 5% of the total air traffic in Dabolim airport is international but the new airport terminal is set to have a healthy mix of 20% International and 80% domestic flights.

GMR said that they will be working with various airlines in the international domain and position and market the new airport.

“We will make all efforts to increase the ratio of domestic to international passengers in the airlines. We are sure we should find success in the next two to three years,” a GMR official said, adding that in the current phase, MIA will cater to 4.4 million passengers and the moment the airport hits 80% of its potential, work for phase two will begin.

He also said that the airport will see about 12.5 mn passengers per annum in the next five years. “The existing airside infrastructure is good enough for us to handle about 20- 22 million passengers with one runway and one auxiliary runway and (parallel taxiway) which will be operational from January 5,” Sheshan said.

As of now, the new airport will handle about 200 air traffic movements per day.

Moreover, the new airport’s airspace will be segregated from the existing Dabolim airport thus making it operationally independent.

The airport has been developed at a cost of around ₹2,870 crore by the GMR Group, which also operates airports in Delhi, Hyderabad, and Nagpur.

The new international airport is in the Northern part of Goa – about 35 km away from Panaji, the capital city of Goa.

With the new airport, airlines like IndiGo and GoFirst have already announced flights to and from the new airport - most of these flights are during the morning hours. Currently, flights land in Goa before 8am and after 12:30pm daily.

Passenger traffic has been seeing record growth and travel resumed post Covid-19, country’s numbers rise to record levels making the existing airport infrastructure unable to cope up with increase in demand. Hence, to cater to the passengers, second airports in key cities will help to handle the future increase in passenger numbers.

Indigo and GoFirst have already announced plans to launch 168 and 42 flights respectively from the new airport, starting next month.

Government of India granted in principle approval to the government of Goa with approval of the union cabinet for setting up of a Greenfield airport at Mopa in March 2000. PM Modi laid the foundation stone of the airport in November 2016 and the construction work started in March 2018.