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The announcement made by Oman Air about shifting its base to Mopa Airport led to creating a buzz in the media and curiosity among the stakeholders. The first ones to get upset about this decision were the taxi operators of Goa, who always remained against the construction and commissioning of the Airport at Mopa. According to the reports, The new greenfield international airport at Mopa has yet to obtain the aerodrome licence, but that did not stop airlines, especially Oman Air from accepting flight bookings from Muscat to the Mopa airport. Oman Air said that it will stop flight operations out of Goa International Airport (GOI) from January 1, and will shift operations to the private airport at Mopa (GOX). Meanwhile, Qatar Airways, Air India, and Air Arabia are still providing direct international flights to Goa and continue to o f f e r f l i g h t s t o D a b o l i m airport. Oman Air will operate four direct flights to Mopa per week, with tickets priced at Rs 40,000 per person, stated the report. According to the officials at GMR, Oman air is not alone that is talking about the shift. “Oman Air is the first one to start the talks, but several airlines are talking to us. We a r e a l s o i n t o u c h w i t h domestic airlines and the slots will be finalised when a clear decision is taken about the start of operations, ” said a G M R G o a I n t e r n a t i o n a l Airport Ltd (GGIAL) official. GGIAL has refused to offer any official statement. Meanwhile, the political parties have started cashing on the opportunity to target the state government on this issue. The Benaulim MLA Venzy Viegas said that he has written to chief operating officer Nasser Al Salmi to “strongly protest this decision” as it is counter-intuitive to the i n t e r e s t s o f O m a n A i r ’ s operations as well as that of Goans. “Yesterday, I received a message from one of my constituents regarding an email received from Oman Air,” he said. The fear of the closure of the D a b o l i m A i r p o r t i s a l s o creating tension amongst the taxi operators but the fact remains that Dabolim Airport will not be closing down since all the airlines won't be shifting to the Mopa for the simple reason is people travelling to south Goa will always have the options open to book their ticket to the (GOI) Dabolim Goa instead of (GOX) Mopa Goa. R e s p o n d i n g t o t h e s e apprehensions, chief minister Pramod Sawant said that the state and Centre will work on a plan to ensure that flights are equally shared between the new airport at Mopa and the existing Dabolim airports. A senior official from the department of civil aviation said that once GGIAL obtains the required permissions, the state government will invite P M N a r e n d r a M o d i t o inaugurate the Mopa airport.

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