NEW DELHI: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Wednesday issued the aerodrome licence to Mopa Airport, making Goa the first Indian city-state to have two airports that will soon witness regular commercial flights.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the new airport built by the GMR Group in coming weeks after which the new facility will become operational.
Airlines like IndiGo have indicated they will operate from both the existing Dabolim Airport and the new one at Mopa.
“The licence was issued on Wednesday evening after a series of checks. It essentially means the airport is certified to be safe for handling flights,” said a senior official.
Mopa Airport is keenly awaited as Dabolim is a Naval airport with limited slots for scheduled commercial flights. This has for years meant few flights during limited hour of the day — and hence high fares in peak travel season — for passengers.
Being 100% civilian airport, Mopa will allow more flights to Goa — at least doubling from current numbers is expected.
Delhi-NCR technically also has two airports that can handle commercial flights — IGIA and Hindon that got a civil enclave in 2019. But the post pandemic fall in number of flights meant IGIA could handle all the traffic and the requirement for Hindon as a secondary airport dropped.
The second 100% civilian airport at Greater Noida’s Jewar will be ready in the second half of 2024. Subsequently, Mumbai will get its badly-required second airport at Navi Mumbai.
The Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) this August issued an ad hoc tariff order for the GMR-developed Mopa airport.
Second airports that will soon start opening in Indian cities/regions could be relatively more expensive than the single ones operating there so far, for the first few years. The reason: A majority of them will need to compete for traffic with the existing ones. When Bengaluru and Hyderabad got new airports in 2009 and 2008, respectively, the exiting ones — HAL and Begumpet — were closed for commercial flights.
AERA’s ad hoc aeronautical charges traiff order includes a user development fee (UDF) of Rs 450 and Rs 1,100 per departing domestic and international passengers, respectively, from Mopa till March 31, 2023. The GMR Group, that has developed Mopa, had proposed a UDF of Rs 980 and Rs 1,500.
The authority felt “the proposal of the airport operator is on higher side and needs to be moderated.” The authority has decided to allow GIAL, Mopa, to charge the ad hoc tariff till March 31, 2023, or if the regular tariff order is issued before that.
