Panaji, May 13 (TNN): In a major blow to the next tourism season, flight operations at the international airport at Dabolim will be restricted to just 8 hours a day, for a period of 6 months, to accommodate the Indian Navy's decision to re-carpet the airport's singular runway.
As the re-carpeting work cannot be done during the monsoon, it is scheduled for the 6-month period between September 2014 and February 2015, Goa's peak tourist season.
Airports Authority of India, that operates the civilian enclave of the naval airbase at Dabolim, is still trying to negotiate timings with the Indian Navy, which has given them the use of the runway from 8am to 4pm once the re-carpeting work begins.
At present, civilian flights at the airport operate for 19 hours per day, while the Navy conducts its training exercises between 8am and 1pm.
"Scaling down our operations is imminent. We are trying to work things out with the airline operators to adjust flight timings, but we would definitely be forced to reduce the number of flights handled here during that period," said M Suresh, director, AAI, Goa.
"We have requested the Indian Navy to allow us use of the runway for at least 12 to 14 hours per day, but have learnt that the duration of the re-carpeting work would in that case increase to one year,' he said.
The tarring of the runway will be taken up throughout the night, and flights will be allowed to take off and land an hour after work stops, he added.
International charters and flights from the Gulf countries and south east Asia that usually operate at night, are expected to be the worst-hit by the time restrictions.
The announcement has left airline and charter operators and other tourism stakeholders anxious. "This is disastrous news for the state's tourism industry. While domestic flights may be able to squeeze in their arrivals and departures during the eight hours allotted for civil aviation, these restrictions will paralyze international and charter flights that usually arrive late at night. We will not be able to salvage even 50% of our international flight traffic," said Ralph De Souza, spokesperson for the Travel and Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG).
"We cannot expect busy international airports in Europe and the UK to topple their flight schedules for us, especially as many of them do not operate flights at night time. Carriers from the middle-east are also going to be left hanging, as they follow a well-planned 'hub and spoke model', wherein feeder flights from smaller countries bring passengers to Qatar and Dubai, from where larger aircraft take off within two hours. How will these operators manage their schedules and get runway slots in the airport of origin?" he asks.
"The state has already experienced the economic paralysis brought about by the ban on mining. It will now see that in tourism," de Souza said. tnn