<Q: Are you in favour of the second airport in Goa? A: We don't really need to support another airport. Goa is a small place. If we need a second airport, we need to make it viable and sustainable, by adding more flights at least 80 flights. The Sea Bird project is ready so the navy could shift thereby providing us full use of the present airport. The Dabolim airport was always civilian property. Look at the old gazettes. So, why waste money on a new airport. We can use the money to help the Navy shift their station from Goa. Its purpose can well be served by the Sea Bird project. The present airport is enough. We can have a long-term vision, which can be fulfilled by shifting the naval station; a new airport is not my priority. Also, having another airport so close to the existing one is not proper.> [Eddie Fernandes, Jan 4]
Further to my yesterday's posting, some additional comments on the Hon Minister's reply regarding Mopa airport: 1. The new airport is said to require 80 flights to make it viable. He doesnt say whether this is per day or per week. Dabolim averages 20 flights PER DAY. These are all domestic airline flights. There are a few extra chartered flights (international) per day during the tourist season. There dont seem to be any "scheduled" international flights although somebody once mentioned something about Air India some time back. 2. The Minister deals with the complicated Navy issue in just a few sentences. He claims Seabird is ready whereas it is only one phase that has been commissioned. Construction of the airport at Yenkebe which seems to have been an afterthought is yet to be begun. Where he gets the idea that the Navy will be prepared to shift to Yenkebe (if and when it is ready to substitute for Dabolim) without a fight is a mystery. The Navy has resisted the idea that Dabolim was always a civilian facility and will probably continue to do so until it suits its convenience. The new point the Minister raises is of compensating the Navy for the shift. How much will this entail (snce the Yenkebe terrain is already deemed a constraint) and will it strain the state's finances? The govenment has already been under fire for footing the entire cost of IFFI and even paying for the foreign delegates. This tendency to throw money around may need to be checked and curbed. Besides, there is a crying need to reduce sales tax on ATF from 30-40 percent levels to 4% in order to reduce domestic air fares to Goa and make them affordable. If Dabolim becomes a base for low cost carriers that alone might double or triple the daily flights there. Do people here know that it is believed to be cheaper for Indians to travel abroad for a vacation than to visit Goa? 3. The Minister says Mopa is not his priority. But the Civil Aviation Minister has included Mopa in HIS development plans. Thus Mopa may suffer the same fate as Bangalore International Airport which got caught between two stools and has got a green signal for construction only now, a dozen years after it was conceived. It will take another three years to be commisssioned. If we wait for Dabolim to be sorted out before starting on Mopa a lot of time wll be needlessly wasted. The Goa gvernment is already thinking of widening the Highway between Pernem and Polem. This will complement Mopa airport beautifully connecting it neatly with Dabolim. The Tourism Ministry has got its priorities skewed. 4. I have already talked about multiple close in airports in London and even China. Many other examples abound --New York, Washington, Miami, Paris etc. We are only talking about 2 airports here not three or five.
