<5. Would you prefer having a new airport for Goa or expanding theexisting one? Why?A. We need a new airport for the tourists. How else will they go tothe Marina at Tiracol that my friend Digambar is setting up now? Theold airport can be retained for the locals, if desired. MPT isplanning a cruise terminal at Vasco. It will be convenient to have anairport or helipad close by.>[Miguel Braganza].
This is a good example of starting out (tentatively) in favour of two airports but running the real risk of killing one of them. I doubt if it would pass the "Two airports for Goa for 20 years" test. What does "new airport for tourists" mean? There are around 2.5 million of them each year, for gosh sakes. If its just charter flight tourists there are 200,000 of them a year. Plus a similar number who travel by road/rail. A two-runway, CAT III ILS, A380 friendly airport at Mopa only for charter tourists is bound to cost a bomb with piddling returns. The builder/operator will ask for Dabolim's head on a platter (with the Navy egging him on) and charge a User Developement Fee of Rs 1000 extra per departure to boot. Moral of the story: The business of traffic sharing, which is the issue here, is a crucial one (affecting design, access, cost, returns etc) and not to be taken in a knee jerk, half baked way.
