A Brand New Gateway
Tourism in Goa gets a boost with the new airport at Mopa set to enhance passenger handling capacity and ease congestion
▶ SINCE CHANGE IS life’s only constant, it ensures that priorities also evolve. The new international airport at Mopa in Goa is a prime example of this dynamism. Prime Minister Narendra Modi indicated as much while inaugurating the country’s 10th greenfield airport on December 11. Assuring that the airport would help ensure all-round development in the region, he said, “The Manohar International Airport is an example of the changing soch (mindset) as well as approach of the government… The luxury tag attached to aviation had led the previous governments to curtail spending on the sector. They failed to understand that even the middle class aspired to travel by air.”
Recognised as one of the most favoured tourist destinations globally, Goa’s newest airport is named after the late former chief minister of the state, Manohar Parrikar, who had also served as the country’s defence minister. Located in the Pernem taluka of North Goa district, it is the western state’s second international airport.
Despite being approved in principle over two decades ago in March 2000, the greenfield airport project hit several snags. Having weathered stiff political opposition and resistance from the powerful tourism lobby in the southern part of the state, along with a clutch of public interest litigations challenging its clearance from the National Green Tribunal, the construction of the project had also slowed down during the Covid19-induced lockdowns.
Work on the airport began in right earnest following the state government’s agreement with the developers, GMR Goa International Airport Ltd (GGIAL) in November 2016, a subsidiary of airports-to-energy conglomerate GMR Group that also operates the
airports in Delhi and Hyderabad, among others. The first phase of the project has been completed under the public-private partnership (PPP) model at a revised sanctioned project cost of `2,870 crore.
Goa’s primary airport in Dabolim belongs to the Indian Navy. Being a defence property attached to INS Hansa, the country’s biggest naval airbase, it has constraints of time slots that restrict the operation of domestic and international flights to and from the airport to specified hours.
Moreover, the existing airport is oversaturated as it currently handles close to 8 million passengers per annum (MPPA) annually, against an actual capacity of 4.4 MPPA.
THREE MORE PHASES
With work on the first phase completed, Manohar International Airport can currently handle 4.4 MPPA. This will increase to 5.8 MPPA in the second phase, 9.4 MPPA in the third phase and finally to 13.1 MPPA in the fourth phase. The airport’s capacity can be enhanced by nearly three times to handle up to 33 million passengers in case of a substantial increase in air traffic. Designed as a zero-carbon-footprint airport, it will join an elite club of green airports across the world.
Moreover, while it was initially proposed to shut down the existing Dabolim airport for civilian flights, the two airports will now operate in tandem to service their respective catchment areas in North and South Goa. And the government has left the distribution of traffic between the two airports to market dynamics.
“Less than 5 per cent of the traffic in Dabolim is international. Our objective is to have a mix of 20 per cent international and 80 per cent domestic. Accordingly, we will work with various international airlines to market our airport,” says R.V. Seshan, CEO of GGIAL, adding that passengers are willing to pay extra for a good ambience and service—and that will be the differentiator for Mopa airport.
Besides, the state—currently dependent on sectors like fishing, agriculture, tourism, pharmaceuticals, and mining—is looking to become an international hub of clean cutting-edge technologies and industrial financial services on the lines of Dubai, Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai, further necessitating a major dedicated greenfield international airport.
The airport—that was licensed by aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in October—will open for commercial operations from January 5, 2023. And leading Indian carriers have been quick to announce operations to and from the new airport.
IndiGo, the country’s largest airline by fleet and market share, has announced 12 daily and a total of 168 weekly new flights to and from Mopa. This will be the lowcost carrier’s (LCC) largest-ever new station launch, connecting the new airport to eight cities across India. Another LCC, Go First, has also announced 42 weekly flights to and from the airport. In a communication, Muscat-based Oman Air has announced that it will be shifting all its flights to Mopa from Dabolim starting January 1.
According to industry sources, more Indian and international carriers are expected to announce operations from Mopa in the coming months. This can mean only one thing—one of India’s (and the world’s) favourite holiday getaways has a new gateway for tourists.