Goa News: Charter flights allowed from mid-October in Goa, but international arrivals expected only for November, Read more details!

No application have been made for the for charter flight slot. The charter flight gets land only one the flight slot and landing permission get granted. Hence their is no definite date for the actual starts of charter flights in to Goa

As per the Directorate General Of Civil Aviation (DGCA) the landing of charter flights from October 15, but still the Goa is waiting for the his first charter to land in the state's Dabolim Airport.

One single charter is no landed yet in the Airport confirmed by the Rajeev Kumar, terminal manager of Goa Airport.

"Yet no application have been made for the for charter flight slot. The charter flight gets land only one the flight slot and landing permission get granted. Hence their is no definite date for the actual starts of charter flights in to Goa", said Gagan Malik, director, Goa Airport.

Goa’s charter season begins in October and runs till May each year. Russia and the UK are top source markets for Goa tourism, with the Scandinavian countries accounting for nearly 10% of total charter arrivals.

Flights from Russia starts from:

Flights from Russia are expected to start from mid-November but flights from the United Kingdom might not land before mid-December as TUI, one of the biggest players in the UK-Goa charter sector, has decided not to resume operations until December 13, 2021.

Abida Kumar, vice-president (operations), Minar Travels, said- “So far, only Russia Airlines has received permission from the Russian government for two weekly flights to Goa. The DGCA is yet to approve the Russia Airlines flights and the schedule will be finalised once approvals are in place.”

The New Delhi-headquartered travel company said it handled 125 charter flights from Russia every month. Also Kumar added- “Though visa application submissions have resumed, we still do not have clarity about chartered flights. ”

Goa received 813 charter flights and 218,776 foreign tourists between the October 2018 and May 2019. According to the Goa Tourism Department data- over 90,000 tourists came from Russia in 292 flights, followed by UK and Ukraine.

Goa received the highest number of charter flights in 2013-14. That year, the state received 1,128 flights carrying 261,452 foreign tourists. The number of foreign charter flights dropped to 798 in 2015-16 but climbed again to 988 in the following year.

Serafino Cota, president, Small & Medium Hoteliers Association of Goa (SME) said- “Pre-pandemic, every year there were at least 800 chartered flights into Goa, bringing nearly 2.7 lakh international tourists. This year, I am not expecting more than 300 flights from Russia. Just because the chartered flights have resumed, it does not mean we will go back to the pre-pandemic numbers.”

Adding to this Serafino Cota also Said- “Out of the 4,000 hotels registered under SME, nearly 2,000 are small and medium hotels (up to 30 rooms; the remaining 2,000 are really small units of 1/2 bedrooms and paying guests registered with SME). Out of that number, 50% cater to the chartered arrivals. Most short-term Russian tourists stay for two weeks, it is the British who stay long-term. Pre-pandemic, there were at least 8,000 long-term stay tourists in Goa, out of which 3,000 were British tourists who prefer staying in South Goa.”

According to real estate agent Krishna Kumar Thakur, around 80% of long-term British tourists are repeat arrivals.

They come every year during the October-March season and prefer the neighbourhoods of Baga, Anjuna, Arpora, Vagator, while the Russians mainly stay in Arambol and Morjim. So large is the presence of Russians in Arambol that you’ll find a lot of signages here in the Russian language.

Waiver Landing Charges:

The state Government notified a scheme called 'International Charter Support (Waiver of Landing Fees) to provide relaxation in charges of International charter to Goa In order to attract more charters and benefit the Goa tourism industry. The scheme, to provide benefit up to Rs 1 lakh per charter flight, will be in force for charter operators on first-come, first-serve basis from October 2021 to March 2022. The department of tourism, Goa, will provide reimbursement to the charters up to a maximum of Rs 1 lakh per international charter flight on landing charges excluding GST at Dabolim Airport, Goa.

Waiver of landing charges: Earlier this month, the state government had notified a scheme called the ‘International Charter Support (Waiver of Landing Fees) Scheme, 2021’ to provide relaxation in landing charges of international charters to Goa in order to attract more charters and benefit the Goa tourism industry. The scheme, to provide benefit up to Rs 1 lakh per charter flight, will be in force for charter operators on first-come, first-serve basis from October 2021 to March 2022. The department of tourism, Goa, will provide reimbursement to the charters up to a maximum of Rs 1 lakh per international charter flight on landing charges excluding GST at Dabolim Airport, Goa.