India’s Second International Airport in Goa Targets Tourism with Significant New Investor Backing

Kevin Rozario

London

January 23, 2023

mod GOX airport view

The long-awaited Manohar Parrikar International Airport (GOX) in Mopa, Goa in the west of India began domestic services on January 5 marking a new dawn for one of India’s smallest states, but also the richest in terms of GDP per capita.

The first commercial flight to land at GOX was low-cost carrier IndiGo arriving from Hyderabad using a new A321neo. Another ten landings took place on Thursday from five other cities.

The second international airport in Goa is expected to make India’s most popular tourism playground even more attractive to global travelers, helping to relieve congestion at the existing gateway of Dabolim (GOI)). Though more centrally located within the state, GOI was never a realistic candidate for expansion due to its mixed civil and naval/military use on a shared runway and restriction on hours.

The new airport—owned by GMR Airports a division of India’s global infrastructure player GMR Group—was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in December 2022. Originally labeled New Goa International Airport, it has since been officially renamed after India’s former defense minister and the 10th Chief Minister of Goa, the late Manohar Parrikar.

At the inauguration, Modi—who six years ago laid the foundation stone at the then greenfield sitesaid that the airport would triple the number of tourists and therefore be an important revenue driver.

GMR Airports—in which France’s Groupe ADP holds a 49% stakesigned a concession agreement with the Government of Goa for GOX in November 2016. The airport was developed through a public-private partnership (PPP) model on a design, build, finance, operate and transfer (DBFOT) basis. Several tenders for various works at the airport are in progress (see table below).

The entity that operates GOX is GMR Goa International Airport Limited (GGIAL) and its strategy is to make the airport the key leisure gateway to the state and create a large hospitality district in its vicinity. The company expects to start international flights in February and envisages serving 4.4 million passengers per year in its first phase “and will ramp that up as traffic growth demands.”

Subscriber-only content. You must be signed in and have a subscription plan to view this information.

Not a member of airportIR?

Subscribers receive access to value-added content including the latest Deal Pipeline intel, in-depth feature articles and analysis, operator/investor profiles, industry insights, reports and much more.

What's Included

  • In-depth deal pipeline content
  • Feature articles and analysis
  • Detailed operator/investor profiles
  • Industry insights, reports and much more

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Proin faucibus arcu et sem dapibus, faucibus viverra ex semper. Sed maximus urna quis lectus porta gravida. Sed enim sem, ullamcorper at tempor et, tincidunt eget purus. Etiam vitae iaculis dolor. Etiam commodo tempus turpis. Integer ac nunc ac leo facilisis tempus. Pellentesque quis sagittis diam. Fusce congue pulvinar interdum. Curabitur porta libero enim, ullamcorper condimentum diam accumsan quis. In tempor egestas risus, id congue nibh cursus in. Cras sollicitudin fermentum orci et eleifend.

Nam eget imperdiet risus, at luctus nulla. Nullam porttitor, est quis viverra fringilla, ipsum velit tincidunt massa, vel egestas lacus velit eget mauris. Proin finibus condimentum tellus, in commodo felis dapibus a. Curabitur luctus et sapien a dapibus. Mauris faucibus dapibus justo vitae varius. Proin quis mauris eros. Curabitur tincidunt feugiat dignissim.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Proin faucibus arcu et sem dapibus, faucibus viverra ex semper. Sed maximus urna quis lectus porta gravida. Sed enim sem, ullamcorper at tempor et, tincidunt eget purus. Etiam vitae iaculis dolor. Etiam commodo tempus turpis. Integer ac nunc ac leo facilisis tempus.