PANJIM: The State unit of the CII is making a concerted move to increase the profile of Dabolim airport. The Chairman of CII Kirit Maganlal recently led a delegation to meet Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar and presented a proposal for giving effect to the CM’s Budget proposal of declaring the old airport as a hub for airline operations.
The CII had conducted talks with Low Cost Carrier (LCC) operators and had at one stage invited the CEO of Air Asia Mittu Chandilya to its Annual General Meeting as a guest of honour. This was followed by organizing meetings with the travel and tour fraternity of Goa and the AAI. The CII has also held a number of meetings with the Government along with some LCC operators.
Individuals associated with the initiative who refused to come on record said the State government also had talks with the armed forces to keep them in the loop. The old airport, he said had to be utilised now that the new terminal was operational. They had talked to Spice Jet too he revealed though it was at a very initial stage. The CII was working hard to ensure that the number of tourists coming to the State increased.
In addition, if low cost airlines had their hubs in the State it would result in ancillary businesses coming up around them. The CM, he said, wanted four aircrafts parked over night for a minimum of 250 days in a year. This would then entail them to a discount on Airline Turbine Fuel from the existing 12% to 5%.
This will be an enormous saving for the airlines considering that 40% of expenditure is towards fuel bills. With regards to Air Asia he said the airline had not made any decision on a base now and their operations from Chennai were as of now temporary and could change given that they were open to the idea of shifting if given good sops from the State governments.
It is now learned that the Government has initiated a Special Task Force led by the Secretary Aviation, Government of Goa and the CII to study and evolve terms of operation for such LCC operators and report its findings in the next ten days. The hub operations are meant to give a tremendous boost to tourism in the State and provide much needed connectivity to Goa to the Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities in India.
This move to make Goa hub for low cost airlines was initiated during the tenure of Atul Pai Kane as Chairman of CII. He had initiated discussions with a number of LCC airlines to utilize the idle old airport facilities after the inauguration of the new international airport at Dabolim.