Goa’s second airport at Mopa started flight operations on Thursday with IndiGo bringing 168 weekly flights as it looks to augment its passenger capacity to the popular tourist destination and simultaneously operate out of the old airport at Dabolim.
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The new Goa Manohar International Airport, developed by GMR Goa International Airport Limited (GGIAL), a wholly owned subsidiary of GMR Airports Infrastructure Limited, was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month.
The airport saw 16 flights on day one. Apart from IndiGo and GoFirst, several other airlines are in the process of finalising modalities.
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Indigo flight 6E 6145 from Hyderabad, was the first commercial aircraft to touch down at the airport at around 9 a.m. The aircraft was given a traditional water canon salute on arrival.
IndiGo will operate 168 weekly flights between Mopa and 8 domestic destinations like Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Jaipur, and Ahmedabad from the first day of operations.
The present Goa Dabolim Airport in South Goa will also remain active for IndiGo where it operates 436 weekly flights, taking IndiGo’s total weekly flights to Goa to 604.
“The flights to the new airport will supplement those at Dabolim. This will accommodate expansion of traffic while we were short of capacity. We expect by the end of this year 15 lakh Indian customers to come and out of this airport by the end of this year as we continue to add flights at both the airports.” said IndiGo’s CEO Pieter Elbers.
[The reporter is in Goa at the invitation of IndiGo.]