Manohar International Airport overtakes Dabolim in connectivity in five months

Dabolim airport is operated by the Indian Navy, which has an offshore testing facility among other assets. (Image Source: Moneycontrol)

The Manohar International Airport (MIA) at Mopa in north Goa (IATA: GOX) started commercial operations on January 5, 2023.

The project had seen its fair share of issues, with court cases and then pandemic delaying construction. When it was finally ready, IndiGo became the lead player by launching flights to the new airport in an unprecedented manner.

This was soon followed by Go First, which is no longer in operation. Eventually, Akasa Air, Vistara and SpiceJet joined, with the new airport proving to be a blessing at least to Akasa, which did not have operations to Goa.

Five months after starting operations, MIA may still have fewer flights than Dabolim, in Goa itself, but is connected to more destinations than Dabolim. While Dabolim is connected to 15 domestic destinations, MIA is connected to 21.

What led to this growth?

Dabolim Airport is operated by the Indian Navy, which has an offshore testing facility among other assets. The airport is closed from 8:30 am to 12:30 pm on weekdays and the Airports Authority of India (AAI)-constructed and operated civil enclave has limited bays and terminal area. This combination means giving out additional slots to airlines is always a challenge.

A tourist destination thrives on flights which arrive between 11 am and 2 pm since they overlap with check-in / check-out timings. With the new airport, there was the availability of slots. While luxury resorts are in the south of the state and closer to the Dabolim airport, not all travellers head south and that makes the new airport at Mopa attractive.

Goa is also undergoing a transformation when it comes to surface transport. When all new bridges and roads become operational, it will help one travel from north to south faster. A new airport which blends with the local style, has a large retail area and an uncongested runway and apron has led to some flights shifting from Dabolim, and not all are additional flights.

What do numbers say?

A look at the May 2023 numbers shows that Dabolim handled a footfall of 585,182 domestic passengers and 34,971 international passengers. The domestic footfalls are 11 percent lower than what the airport saw in May 2022. However, the new airport – MIA -- saw footfalls of 335,265 passengers. The two airports together handled 920,447 domestic passengers in May 2023. Compared to May 2022, it is a 40 percent rise in traffic at Goa.

MIA is yet to receive clearances for international operations, though airlines like Oman Air and Aeroflot have, time and again, opened bookings to operate at the new airport in future.

In terms of Air Traffic Movement (ATM), Dabolim showed a slide of 20 percent in May 2023, compared to May 2022. Goa, as a whole, saw a 27 percent increase for the same period, with Dabolim handling 3,716 domestic ATMs in May 2023 (4,642 in May 2022) and MIA handling 2,200 domestic ATMs. As far as international traffic movement is concerned, May 2023 saw 250 ATMs while May 2022 had 191. The international season at Goa primarily starts in October and ends in March.

New airport enables connectivity to new places

There are nine destinations which are connected to both Dabolim and MIA. These are Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai and Pune.

Amritsar, Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar, Coimbatore, Dehradun, Jaipur, Nagpur, Nashik, Patna, Ranchi, Varanasi and Vizag are connected only to MIA, while Indore, Chandigarh, Mysore, Kochi, Raipur and Surat are connected only to Dabolim.

While Dabolim has had red-eye flights (flights that depart at night and arrive at their destinations in the morning), there aren’t any just yet for the new airport. As the road connectivity within Goa improves, probably that too will start.

Tail note

The experience at MIA will set the future of both Noida International Airport and Navi Mumbai International airport, which are targeting a completion date sometime in 2024.

While Goa is a small state with two airports, it continues to serve the same catchment area. Likewise, Noida International Airport is at Jewar in Uttar Pradesh but is planned to cater to the growing traffic of the National Capital Region. Navi Mumbai, on the other hand, is within the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and with the Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link all set to be operational soon, it will be accessible from the business hub of south Mumbai.

On the back of two large orders at Paris Air Show -- that of IndiGo and the formalisation of Air India order -- there have been questions on the demand side in India and a small example of Goa gives a definite answer to this.