First charter of season to land on Oct 26 from Kazakhstan

Panaji: Amid some cancellations of landing slots by charters, Goa is slated to receive the first charter of the tourist season on October 26 from Almaty, Kazakhstan. Last year, too, the first charter arrived from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) country.
While there have been uncertainties regarding the arrival of charters from other destinations, operators are witnessing a healthy rise in bookings by free independent travellers (FIT), and the state has already seen the presence of foreign tourists.
“As per the earlier plan, the initial charter from Kazakhstan was to land in Goa on October 19, but it was cancelled. The flights will start from October 26,” said Anupam Kishore, director of Caper India.
Kishore said that from October 26 till November-end, Goa will receive one charter a week, and from December 3, two more flights a week will be added, and operations will continue till the end of March.
The ambiguity about charter flights from the UK continues owing to the e-visa issue. Also, Azur Air, which was slated to start charter operations from Russia this month, has cancelled landing slots booked for October.
Vice-president of Concord, Sheikh Ismail, said that since the pandemic, Azur Air has stopped operations to Goa.
“Azur Air's cancellation is not big news as they stopped their operations during the pandemic. Now, the schedule was cancelled due to the war scene,” said Ismail.
Airport director S V T Dhanamjaya Rao told TOI that on September 30, Azur Air informed it about the cancellation of October slots, and they are yet to receive a fresh request from the airline company.
Ernest Dias, chief operating officer at Sita, that handles Goa operations for Azur Air, however, said that though the charter airline has cancelled the October schedule, it will make a fresh request for landing slots. “It will begin its operation from November,” said Dias.
This season, Goa may also see charters arriving from Israel.
Sheikh said his company was collaborating with an Israeli airline. “Negotiations are in progress and we may see charters coming from Israel next month,” Sheikh said.
Rao said they had received queries from an Israeli airline, but landing slots have not been booked yet.
Meanwhile, FIT bookings from Russia as well as European countries, except the UK, have soared. With Russia’s biggest airline company Aeroflot having decided to fly three flights a week from November 2, FIT bookings from the country have gone up.
“A lot of FITs from Russia are coming because Aeroflot will operate regular flights from next month. The airline is not selling tickets to any organised charter company,” said Kumar.
Kumar said that though the scene does not appear extraordinarily good, it is better than last year, when there were no FITs and the charter season ended with the Russia-Ukraine war.
Sheikh said that through his company, a lot of FITs visited Goa last week, and they were mostly from Russia.
Dias said that there has been an upsurge in FITs. “Later this month, I have a group of 100 Portuguese tourists visiting India. They will come to Goa as well. Besides, we also have clients coming from Spain, UK, and other countries,” he said.
While a stay of charter tourist is around 1-2 weeks, for a FIT, it’s 2-4 days as they (FIT) also visit other destinations in India.