The Goa Airport proudly known as the Dabolim Airport and as the name suggests, it is located in a village called Dabolim in Goa, India. The Dabolim Airport is the only airport in Goa and operates as a civil airport from a military airbase which is named the INS Hansa.

The airport was constructed by the government of Estado da India Portuguesa in the 1950’s on a land of about 249 acres (101 ha). Till the year 1961, the airport of Goa served as the major hub for the local airline by the name TAIP Transportes Aereos da India Portuguesa, which on a pre decided schedule served cities like Timor, Karachi and other cities. In the month of April, 1962 it was finally occupied by the  Indian Navy’s air wing due to a successful military operation into Goa by Major General K.P. Candeth, “handed over” the Goa Airport to the Indian Navy before retiring charge as its Military Governor to a Lieutenant Governor of the previously called the Union Territory of Goa in June.

After the two important road bridges across the major waterways of Goa were finally built in the early 1980’s and Goa hosted the CHOGM (Commonwealth Head of Government Meeting) in 1983, the charter flight business finally began to work out at Dabolim a few years later and was spearheaded by Condor Airlines of Germany.

An estimate of 700 international flights every year account for about 90% of India’s international charter tourist flights. It is estimated that roughly 150 to 200 thousand tourists from abroad arrive at the Goa Airport on charter flights. Goa’s total number of foreign tourists (approximately 300 to 400 thousand) accounts for almost 5-10% of the country’s figure and 10-15% of the national foreign exchange receipts from tourism.  On the weekends, the airport in Goa is saturated with chartered tourist flights especially from the United Kingdom and Russia, and the attention shifts for accommodating these flights. The tourists to Goa from the United Kingdom were estimated to be about 10,100 in the years 2007-2008 while those from Russia were estimated to be about 42,000 during the same period.  Hence, Russia and United Kingdom were the top two foreign tourist categories to visit Goa. Charter flights which are booked by Russia for the current season number about 240.

The Dabolim Airport is totally spread over a massive 688 hectares (1700 acres) of land. There are mainly two terminal blocks, which are operated and handled by the public sector Airport Authority of India (AAI) which is Public Works Department (PWD) mortar and brick building with a total of floor space of about 12000 square metres (130,000 square feet). Out of this floor area about 2000 square metres (22,000 square feet) is comprised of the Domestic Terminal of the airport and then there is also an international terminal which comprises an area of about 1000 square metres (11,000 square feet). The floor space which is remaining is mainly for the other service areas.

Article Posted By : tamil  On June 01, 2011lView All Articles

Article Source :

http://www.veethi.com/articles/the-goa-airport-dabolim-article-39.htm

Keywords :
Goa Airport , Goa