Dabolim Airport

Dabolim Airport is the original international airport of Goa, India's smallest and most heavily visited tourist state, and until January 2023 it was the sole commercial airport serving the territory. Although now complemented by the new Manohar International Airport (GOX) at Mopa, Dabolim continues to handle 36 scheduled routes to 23 nonstop destinations operated by seven airlines. The airport operates under an unusual civil-military arrangement with the Indian Navy, which retains primary ownership as INS Hansa and controls airfield operations. The airport operates a single 11,345 ft (3,458 m) lighted asphalt runway 08/26 at 150 ft (46 m) elevation on a plateau above the Zuari River estuary near Vasco da Gama. Naval operational priority periodically imposes civil traffic curfews during military exercises — a restriction unique among major Indian commercial airports. The integrated passenger terminal opened in 2013 and consolidates domestic and international operations. Internationally significant as the original Indian charter-tourism gateway: Dabolim handled the UK, Russian, German, and Scandinavian winter charter flows from the 1980s onward that built Goa into one of the Indian subcontinent's most internationally visible leisure destinations. Charter carriers including TUI fly, Condor, Azur Air, Rossiya, and Nordwind historically operated seasonal rotations through GOI, and scheduled year-round services remain concentrated on Gulf routes (Dubai, Sharjah, Kuwait, Doha) plus Bangkok. The 2022 opening of GOX at Mopa shifted much charter and long-haul traffic north, but Dabolim retains a position as the closer airport to South Goa beach resorts at Colva, Benaulim, Palolem, and Agonda.