About Goa Airport

Goa Airport Location
Goa Airport Location

Goa International Airport (IATA: GOI, ICAO: VOGO), more commonly known as Dabolim Airport, is an international airport located in the city of Dabolim in Goa, India. It is the only airport in the state and operates as a civil enclave in a military airbase named INS Hansa. It is 4 km from the nearest city Vasco da Gama, 23 km from the South Goa district headquarters of Margao, and 30 km from the capital city Panjim.

The airport was built, in 1955, by the Government of the Portuguese State of India, on 249 acres (101 ha) of land, as the Aeroporto de Dabolim, later receiving the official name of Aeroporto General Bérnard Guedes.

Until 1961, the airport served as the main hub of the Portuguese India's airline TAIP (Transportes Aéreos da Índia Portuguesa), which on a regular schedule served Daman, Diu, Karachi, Mozambique, Portuguese Timor, and other destinations.

Goa's estimated 1200 international flights per year account for some 93% of the country's international charter tourist flights. It is estimated that about 300 to 350 thousand international tourists arrive at Dabolim on charter flights. Goa's total international tourists (roughly double the charter passengers) account for 5-10% of the national figure and 10–15% of the country's foreign exchange receipts from tourism. As the weekend morning hours approach saturation due to waves of chartered flights especially from UK, and Russia, attention is shifting to the night and early morning hours of weekdays for accommodating such flights. Tourists from UK to Goa by air were estimated to number about 300,000 in 2013-14 while those from Russia numbered about 49,000 (by 280 charter flights) in the same period.

The modernisation project of Goa Airport was one of 35 airport expansion projects undertaken by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and, in terms of size and money, was its third largest project after the ones at Chennai and Kolkata airports. It included the construction of an integrated terminal building to replace the older terminals, a multi-level car parking (MLCP) facility to accommodate between 540 to 570 cars and construction of additional parking stands for aircraft, among others. The AAI acquired additional land from the Indian Navy and the State Government for apron expansion and the expansion of the older international terminal building complex.

The foundation stone for the terminal was laid on 21 February 2009, the project work began in May 2010 and construction of the terminal began in May 2011. The terminal can handle 2,750 peak hour passengers, cost Rs. 3.45 billion and was inaugurated on 3 December 2013.

The integrated building design features aesthetic glass, large steel span structures and frameless glazing. The 62,000 square metre terminal will cater to five million passengers annually. It will be equipped with 16 aerobridges, out of which, eight will be installed in the first phase. The terminal will also feature an in-line baggage scanning system and a state-of-the-art sewage treatment plant.

It has 75 check-in counters, 22 immigration counters for departures, 18 immigration counters for arrivals, 14 security check booths and 8 customs counters. The basement of the four-level terminal has utilities like electricity and cargo handling. The check-in counters are placed on the ground floor while the first floor has security check booths. The second floor has the security hold area where passengers may wait before boarding an aircraft.

The existing terminal buildings would be totally shut down for all air operations after the commissioning of the new terminal.

Terminal 1 - Domestic

Less than a dozen airlines compete in the domestic market. There are 132 airports in India which can be categorised in sometimes overlapping ways into public sector, private sector, civil enclaves, international, metro, and non-metro. Goa is connected to all six main cities in India: Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Delhi, Chennai & Kolkata. There are multiple flights to Mumbai per day, operated by over 5 airlines. The first Goa – Mumbai domestic flight leaves at around 0700 in the morning and the last flight leaves at around 2350.

Terminal 2 - International

Dabolim's scheduled international flights are rather limited, however these have been on the increase in recent years. These are operated only to the Persian Gulf region by the state owned carrier Air India and Doha based carrier, Qatar Airways. Foreign carriers were for long disallowed from operating scheduled flights to or from Goa, but have recently started obtaining permission to do so.

Several European charter airlines fly to Goa seasonally, typically between November and May. Flights from the UK (London Gatwick & Manchester Airport) are operated by Thomson Airways and Thomas Cook Airlines.




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