PANAJI
The Travel and Tourism Association of Goa held detailed discussions with officials of the Airports Authority of India on the lack of facilities at the new terminal, which, it asserted, cause a lot of unnecessary harassment to the tourists, especially charters.
In a statement released to the media, the TTAG informed that its delegation led by its President Savio Messias, along with major stakeholders from the industry, met AAI Chairman, airport director and other officials to discuss issues ranging from charter slots to taxis at the airport in the hope of resolving these quickly.
“In the international arrival terminal, out of the 20 allocated desks for e-visas, only 13 to 14 are serviceable due to lack of equipment. Sometimes even out of the 13 to 14 desks, only 7 to 8 are serviceable, due to shortage of staff and hence there are long delays faced by passengers, especially on Fridays, Saturdays and Sunday morning hours, when two wide-bodied aircraft arrive at the same time or one after the other,” the TTAG said, adding that rather than attempting to resolve the issue there was a “blame game going on between AAI and Immigration authorities regarding the infrastructure provided at the airport.”
The issue of “slot penalty”, ranging from of Rs 10,000 to Rs 25,000, was discussed. This penalty is levied on charter charter operators due to delays caused by weather and operating conditions in the place of origin. TTAG has opined that this slot penalty needs to be withdrawn while assuring that a similar slot deposit can be retained to safeguard against the possibility of operators blocking slots and not utilizing them.
The TTAG lamented that wide-bodied charter aircraft often have to wait for more than one hour with engines running due to non-availability of parking bays.
“We would request AAI to find a solution or make a temporary bay in case of such eventualities,” the TTAG said, adding that the long overdue three new aero bridges be configured for international flights and be made operational at the earliest.
Other operational headaches that the charter operators face and that were taken up before the airport authorities included the non-availability of an ambulift due to which physically challenged, passengers having medical cases and senior citizens face a lot of issues.
The issue of the in-line x-ray baggage machine which was installed during the inauguration of the new terminal was also discussed. Till date, the machines is not functional.
The TTAG also took up the issues of taxis outside the airport, lack of bus service and unruly behaviour of trolley retrievers. All these issues, TTAG rued, sully the experience of incoming and outgoing tourists.
Incomplete multi-storey parking, airport works being undertaken without prior intimation to the airlines as well as the longstanding issue of slots were other issues that were discussed.
