Goa’s Mopa Airport to go live on January 5, 2023; IndiGo will launch flights to 8 cities and GoFirst to 3 cities on day 1

Goa will get its second airport and its first greenfield airport in the GMR-operated New Goa International Airport, Mopa (GOX). The airport is due to be inaugurated on December 11, 2022, and will start seeing scheduled service operations from January 5, 2023. The airport will continue to operate in parallel with Goa’s other airport at Dabolim (GOI).

The GOX airport will fill up the requirement of having connectivity to North Goa, where it currently takes a lot longer to commute  (for instance, up to 1 hour plus) because the GOI airport is located as such. Also, this means that one can finally fly in and out of Goa at all hours of the day. The current GOI arrangement means that daytime flights into the airport are not possible due to the airport being a naval enclave and shut from 8 am – 12 noon every day for Naval use.

IndiGo to launch 168 weekly flights to Mopa

IndiGo has announced that they will launch 12 daily and a total of 168 weekly new flights to and from New Goa International Airport (Mopa, North Goa) effective from January 5, 2023. This will be IndiGo’s largest-ever new station launch and will immediately connect New Goa International Airport to 8 cities across India.

a heart shaped cloud with text

IndiGo says it is introducing these new flights to cater to the increasing demand and will improve direct connectivity to North Goa. The present Goa Dabolim Airport will remain active, and IndiGo will continue its existing operations there.

Here is the schedule of flights that IndiGo will operate from January 5, 2023, onwards to Mopa.

a table with numbers and time

The launch of Mopa will finally mean, at least from Delhi, one will be able to do a morning – evening into Goa (not everyone goes there for a vacation, after all!). I’m looking forward to seeing Goa morning-evening connectivity from Mumbai as well.

Pieter Elbers, Chief Executive Officer of IndiGo said,

We are very excited to announce our largest ever new station launch with new direct connections from the New Goa International Airport in Mopa, North Goa. It’s momentous for us at IndiGo to have such massive opening and it speaks of our ambition and ability to provide connectivity to our customers and the nation in the best possible way.

Flights can be booked on Indigo’s website already.

IndiGo currently operates flights from GOI to 9 domestic airports across the country. I’ve currently not studied to see which flights are being moved from GOI to GOX, but I will write about that separately when I get the time.

GoFirst to operate flights to 3 airports on Day 1

GoFirst announced the commencement of 42 non-stop weekly flights to and from the New Goa International Airport (Mopa, North Goa) as well, with the first flight scheduled for January 5, 2023.

GoFirst will commence its first flight on the same day at 0850 hours from Bengaluru to Goa. Initially, GoFirst will connect Goa GOX airport to Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad. GoFirst will also continue to operate flights from the existing Goa Airport.

a beach with waves crashing on the shore

Mr Kaushik Khona, Chief Executive Officer, GoFirst, said,

As we expand our network in leisure destinations, Goa is an extremely important destination for us. We are pleased to fortify our presence, and this new addition will further reflect our unflinching commitment to providing customers with a promising flying experience.

Bottomline

IndiGo will launch 168 flights from North Goa’s new airport to 8 cities around the country on January 5, 2023, instantly connecting it with the nation and providing much-needed connectivity to North Goa. Flights are up for sale already.

What do you think of this big headline move from IndiGo about their launch into Goa North?


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About Ajay

Ajay Awtaney is the Founder and Editor of Live From A Lounge (LFAL), a pioneering digital platform renowned for publishing news and views about aviation, hotels, passenger experience, loyalty programs, travel trends and frequent travel tips for the Global Indian. He is considered the Indian authority on business travel, luxury travel, frequent flyer miles, loyalty credit cards and travel for Indians around the globe. Ajay is a frequent contributor and commentator on the media as well, including ET Now, BBC, CNBC TV18, NDTV, Conde Nast Traveller and many other outlets.

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