PANAJI
Aggrieved that the charter flights have still not received permission to land at 8.30 am at Dabolim Airport on weekdays, the Travel and Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG) has decided that it will have to fight for a charter policy, which will ensure that such issues will not crop up in future and that the interests of tourism industry in the state are adequately taken care of.
Charter flights, which bring tourists predominantly from Russia, CIS countries and UK, are unique to Goa. Such flights bring group of foreign travellers to the state and hence these are very crucial. But, at pan-India level, charter flights contribution to tourism industry is not much. Therefore, there is no specific policy for charter flights at national level.
Savio Messias, president, TTAG, said, "We will have to fight for a charter policy at the national level. Such a policy should take care of needs of tourism sector in Goa. It will also have to be approved by the civil aviation ministry of the central government."
Messias continued, "The charter flights have still not got permission from the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to land at 8.30 am at Dabolim Airport and to take off at 12.30 pm. The AAI gives more preference to scheduled flights when deciding upon the landing slots."
Over the years, the number of domestic flights landing at Dabolim Airport has significantly increased due to which, it appears, it is difficult to allow landing slots to charter flights.
On weekdays, the Navy closes Dabolim Airport between 8.30 am and 12.30 pm for commercial flights. Therefore, it is very important for charter flights to get a landing slot at 8.30 am.
Messias further explained, "The revenue earned from a charter flight is much more than revenue earned by a domestic flight."
The other issue is that the meaning of the term ‘charter flight' is different in other parts of India than Goa. In other parts of India, charter flights mean small aircraft, which are used typically by businessmen. Therefore, TTAG will have to sensitise the central government authorities about importance of charter flights from Goa's viewpoint.
Sometime back, Navy was not allowing charter flights to land at Dabolim on weekends. At that point, Chief Minister, Manohar Parrikar, had intervened and Navy had permitted charter flights to land at the airport on weekends.
However, such flights still can't land at the airport at 8.30 am on weekdays, which is going to badly affect the tourism sector.
Aggrieved that the charter flights have still not received permission to land at 8.30 am at Dabolim Airport on weekdays, the Travel and Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG) has decided that it will have to fight for a charter policy, which will ensure that such issues will not crop up in future and that the interests of tourism industry in the state are adequately taken care of.
Charter flights, which bring tourists predominantly from Russia, CIS countries and UK, are unique to Goa. Such flights bring group of foreign travellers to the state and hence these are very crucial. But, at pan-India level, charter flights contribution to tourism industry is not much. Therefore, there is no specific policy for charter flights at national level.
Savio Messias, president, TTAG, said, "We will have to fight for a charter policy at the national level. Such a policy should take care of needs of tourism sector in Goa. It will also have to be approved by the civil aviation ministry of the central government."
Messias continued, "The charter flights have still not got permission from the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to land at 8.30 am at Dabolim Airport and to take off at 12.30 pm. The AAI gives more preference to scheduled flights when deciding upon the landing slots."
Over the years, the number of domestic flights landing at Dabolim Airport has significantly increased due to which, it appears, it is difficult to allow landing slots to charter flights.
On weekdays, the Navy closes Dabolim Airport between 8.30 am and 12.30 pm for commercial flights. Therefore, it is very important for charter flights to get a landing slot at 8.30 am.
Messias further explained, "The revenue earned from a charter flight is much more than revenue earned by a domestic flight."
The other issue is that the meaning of the term ‘charter flight' is different in other parts of India than Goa. In other parts of India, charter flights mean small aircraft, which are used typically by businessmen. Therefore, TTAG will have to sensitise the central government authorities about importance of charter flights from Goa's viewpoint.
Sometime back, Navy was not allowing charter flights to land at Dabolim on weekends. At that point, Chief Minister, Manohar Parrikar, had intervened and Navy had permitted charter flights to land at the airport on weekends.
However, such flights still can't land at the airport at 8.30 am on weekdays, which is going to badly affect the tourism sector.
