Cites profitability, fleet realignment issues
Panaji: Air India axed Goa from its London Gatwick network for the winter schedule 2025-26, after earlier announcing the resumption of the flight from October 26.
The thrice weekly flight from Manohar international airport, Mopa, which was suspended from June this year, now continues to remain shelved until the end of the summer schedule next year, as per the airline which has cited profitability issue and fleet realignment as reasons for deferring the resumption of operations on the Goa sector.
However, tour operators and Goan tourism stakeholders on Sunday termed the decision of the airline as disastrous for the tourism sector coming ahead of the new season starting from next month.
They said it would hit international flight connectivity to the state when the industry was asking for more foreign scheduled flights touching down at the two airports. Travel & Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG) president Jack Sukhija said the airline’s Mopa-London flight was the only major international direct flight from Europe to the state.
“The flight had seats reserved for charter tourists and also brought in free independent travellers from the UK,” he said.
A tour operator pointed out that with the flight suspended for quite some time now, passengers who had booked earlier will be re-routed via Mumbai or Delhi.
The flight is popular among Goans from the UK coming home for the year-end Over 54 lakh tourists visited Goa in the first six months of 2025, a 9 per cent jump over the same period of last year. Of this, 51.84 lakh were domestic visitors and 2.71 lakh international tourists. The government is targeting to increase foreign tourist footfall in the upcoming season which has not recovered from its pre-Covid days.
Air India is making numerous schedule changes in its London operations following the tragic AI171 crash in Ahmedabad on June 12. The airline had suspended the direct flights between Mopa and London Gatwick, following the accident until July 15.
However, it did not resume the flight now although it did reinstate other previously curtailed flights to London such as the Amritsar sector.
