VASCO
Dabolim Airport Director Gagan Malik on Friday said Air India flights to UK are likely to resume from April 4 under the Air Bubble programme subject to clearance from the Centre, as slots for the operations had already been approved.
“We had a request for resumption of flights to UK and we have cleared the slots. The central government has not given the point of call for Goa to Air India, but they are expecting it soon and accordingly, they have requested us for slots that have been approved.”
“Secondly, there is a NOTAM of the Navy which are planned and these international flights operations of UK will not happen at night but only during the day.”
“We will be under immense pressure because we have domestic flights during the day, but keeping the interest of Goa and Goans in mind, we have worked out a solution so that we can handle the international flights in between domestic flights and we have approved slots accordingly,” said Malik.
“We are expecting flights to UK from April 4, subject to clearance from the central government.”
The airport director informed that only two countries, Russia and UK, have so far requested for slots in the air bubble initiative.
Malik said flights operations from Russia would also begin soon.
“We had request for slots from Air India under the Air Bubble arrangement for Russia as well and the schedule is from April 14 to October 28. The flights will be between Delhi-Goa-Russia-Goa-Delhi.”
“Russia is comparatively safer and a certain protocol decided by both countries needs to be followed and we have already given the slots to Air India for these operations.”
“Once the Air Bubble programme starts from Russia, it is possible that airline operators from Russia may show interest and begin operations to Goa, because Goa is an important tourist destination for Russia and Russians are very fond of Goa,” said Malik.
