The closure of the Goa runway for the next two months from 3pm to 6.30pm is going to spoil the holiday mood of many flyers.
The closure of the Goa runway for the next two months from 3pm to 6.30pm is going to spoil the holiday mood of many flyers.
Moreover, as most airlines will reschedule their flights due to limited availability of the runway between 1pm and 3pm and post 5.30pm, travel agents say the airfares are likely to go up due to peak hour travel as well as the holiday season.
Airlines will have to reschedule around 17 flights to and from Goa to other parts of the country that are operated in this period. “We have eight flights to and from Goa in that time frame and are in the process of rescheduling them,” said the spokesperson for Jet Airways. Dabolim airport handles 46 domestic and international flights daily.
“As flights will be rescheduled in the available time slot of 1pm to 3pm and 5.30pm (peak hours), this will lead to a fare hike. The situation will aggravate further as this is the beginning of the tourist season,” said Rajesh Rateria, president, Travel Agents Association of India.
A quick search by DNA of travel portals revealed that fares have already increased and are in the range of Rs7,000 to Rs33,961 even for low-cost airlines. “The normal fare to Goa is anywhere between Rs2,500 to Rs4,500,” he said.
According to travel agents, the afternoon time slot is the one when most leisure travellers fly as fares in this time are lower compared to the peak hours.
At the Dabolim airport flights are not operated between 9am and 1pm due to military flying as the airfield belongs to the navy. So the slot for airlines available is from 1pm till 9am the next day.
“However, the 10,000-feet runway has been taken up for periodic maintenance from April 11 and will not be available for the next 60 days in the specified time limit,” said rear admiral Sudhir Pillai, flag officer, Goa area.
He allayed fears of the airport being unsafe and airlines flying under dangerous conditions. “Of the 10,000 feet, 9,000 is available for operations. We had a meeting with the airlines on March 24 not to operate flights in the specified time and still some of them violated it. This is more of a violation and flying to Goa is safe,” he said.
On April 11, the directorate general of civil aviation warned airlines not to violate the NOTAM (notice to airmen) of not operating flights when the runway was undergoing maintenance as they did not adhere to it.
Indian Commercial Pilots Association, a union of around 600
pilots of the Air India erstwhile Indian, issued a directive to its members not to operate bigger aircraft like Boeing 737 and Airbus 320 as it made it unsafe in the absence of PAPI (precision approach path indicator) and GP (glide path).
A former AI commander, however, said that when there is electricity failure rendering PAPI and other navigational aids useless, they often resort to landing using visual approach.
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