Goa airport sets record of 102 departures on Sunday

Times of India | 4 months ago

Times of India

4 months ago

Panaji: While the global air industry got off to a bumpy start with thousands of cancellations, the opposite was true for Goa International Airport, which broke its record of the most number of flights on a single day. On Sunday, the airport handled 204 domestic arrivals and departures within a 24-hour period, which is a historic high for the Airports Authority of India-managed terminal. Goa’s lone airport handled 1,206 flight movements between December 28 and January 2 with 1.6 lakh fliers moving in and out during this period. Given the demand for flights to Goa, there were a few non-scheduled flights that operated too. “Historic high at Goa International Airport as 102 scheduled domestic departures were handled on Sunday. This is aside from the 12 non-scheduled flights and international flight,” said Goa Airport director Gagan Malik. According to data compiled by the Airports Authority of India, 79,896 domestic passengers flew into the state between December 28 and January 2. Most of the passengers flew in on December 30 and with most leaving on Sunday for their homes. Given the demand for flights to Goa, there were 12 non-scheduled operations aircraft that operated to and from Goa during the six-day period. Malik stated that Goa airport handles 88 departures on an average day with the take-offs hitting 95 on certain long weekends. Given that Goa has emerged as the number one domestic destination to ring in the New Year, flight movement also saw an increase. With the demand for flights, air fares had also soared. Airfare from Goa to many of the metros had gone up almost four times post New Year’s Day. A Goa-Chennai flight ticket, which normally costs around Rs 3,500, was priced at more than Rs 11,300 for Sunday. Similarly, airfare on the Goa-Bengaluru route, which is usually Rs 2,500, shot up to nearly Rs 9,500 on the day after January 1. The Goa-Mumbai flight rate had also risen to Rs 7,500 per person for January 2, as against a little over Rs 2,000 on a regular day. To put things in perspective, while Goa International Airport handled 1.6 lakh passengers within a six-day period, the terminal is designed to cater to 76 lakh passengers per annum. AAI has already begun a Rs 255.7 crore airport terminal building expansion project which will increase the airport’s passenger handling capacity to 13 million passengers per annum.