A few minutes before the plane lands at the airport, the flight attendant will give you an entry card to India "Arrival card". It will need to be filled out to pass customs control. After landing, a bus will arrive at the plane and take passengers to the airport building. There you will go through customs and passport control and will be able to collect your luggage at the conveyor belt.

Currency exchange and communications

At the beginning of your trip to Goa, you will need some local money to move around the state. The currency exchange rate at Dabolim Airport is very unfavorable, so we advise you to exchange as much currency as you need to get to a normal exchanger or bank. Next to the exchanger there is an office of a local cellular company, where you can purchase a SIM card from an Indian mobile operator. The cost of a SIM card at the airport is slightly higher than in other parts of the state.

Duty Free stores

There are Duty Free shops at Dabolim Airport. The range of goods presented there is significantly lower than in many other airports in the world. Indian rupees, dollars and euros are accepted for payment. The exchange rate is low.

Where to buy a ticket to Goa at a low price

You can buy plane tickets on our website. Our system will quickly find tickets for you from many airlines at once and show their prices.

check-in

You can enter the airport building no earlier than 4 hours before departure, if you have an air ticket with you. It is better to arrive at least an hour before departure. First you will need to go through customs control and check in for your flight. Check-in occurs by airline, and not by flight number, as in most airports in the world. The airport has ticket offices for Air India, Indian Airlines, Jet Airways, Kingfisher, Sahara Airlines, SpiceJet, and GoAir. At customs you will need to fill out a Departure card.

Location of Goa airport on the map

Goa Airport is located almost in the very middle of the state between North Goa and South Goa, 4 km from the city center of Vasco Da Gama. From the airport to the state capital of Panaji, it is about 30 km.

How to get from Goa airport to the hotel

There are several ways to get from Dabolim airport to the resorts of Goa, but the most popular of them is to take a taxi. The driver will meet you at the airport in the arrivals area, help with your luggage and take you to your desired address. Book a taxi from Goa airport to your hotel online!

Those planning to travel by bus will have to figure out local public transport. The closest bus station to the airport is located in Vasco da Gama, a 10-minute drive away. You can get from the airport to it by autorickshaw (local minibus) for about 60 rupees.

A kilometer from Goa airport there is a railway station, from which you can travel to other parts of Goa and India.

The only airport of the famous world resort near the town of Vasco da Gama in the state of Goa (India) is Goa Dabolim International Airport. Tourists from Russia know it from one of the two terminals operating on international flights. The second terminal is adapted to receive domestic passengers. In total, the airport works with more than two dozen different airline carriers.

From here there are flights to different countries of the world and their cities, including:

• domestic to India: Delhi, Bombay, Agra, Mumbai, Nakpur, Lucknow, etc.;
• international: to Russia (Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk), Ukraine (Kyiv), Great Britain (London), Kazakhstan (Almaty), etc.

The flight display mainly includes charter flights; regular flights cover domestic destinations.

History of development

The history of the emergence of the airport near the small Indian village of Dabolim, located in the central part of the Indian state of Goa, dates back to the late fifties of the last century. The favorable location of this area near the administrative center of the state, the city of Panaji, attracted the attention of the then Portuguese-colonial leadership. The authorities decided to build an airport here for TAIP airline planes, which served destinations to Mozambique, Karachi, etc. At the same time, the airport was used to receive flights from the Portuguese metropolis.

With India gaining independence from Great Britain, Indians began to gradually annex other territories that had previously belonged to other states due to colonial affiliation to their state. Among such objects recaptured by the Indian Air Force was the airport in Dabolim, which finally passed into the hands of the Indian authorities in early 1962.

The airport, which suffered air bombing, did not carry out any civilian flights for a long time, becoming a military airfield for the Indian Air Force. Today, decades later, it is still operated by the military, including for military aircraft.

However, thanks to the persistence of the Goan authorities, they still manage to find a common language with the military, because, in addition to this, there is no longer any airport in Goa, a popular Indian resort. Meanwhile, for the development of tourism, the main economic sector of this territory, an airport is essential. After all, it is by air that the main movements of tourists to these places are carried out, and it is the tourism industry that is the pillar of the development of the entire state and India as a whole.

Features of air traffic in Goa

In general, Dabolim Airport is a complex located on 101 hectares of land. It has two terminals, or rather there were two until 2014, when a new air terminal was built and inaugurated, connected to both terminals at once. So all the services a modern airport needs are provided here.

The airport mainly specializes in charter flights and hosts approximately 90 percent of all charter flights in India. They form the basis of the Goa airport display: the majority of all flights are charters, by the way, every third flight of them is departing from Russia. Dabolim Airport is indeed extremely popular among Russians, and it has gained just as much popularity among residents of Great Britain.

Indians themselves extremely rarely use air services - the country is poor, and the prices for air travel are exorbitant in the understanding of the average local resident. So the bulk of flights here are international charter flights, while domestic ones complement the overall picture. In general, the airport handles a tenth of all foreign passengers traveling to India for tourism purposes.

Services, service, information at Goa airport

In general, the airport provides fairly decent services for such a small facility. There is:

• free Internet,
• Duty Free shops and souvenir shops,
• luggage packing;
• cafe, etc.

As for the information security of passengers, for this purpose there is a help desk at the airport where you can find out everything about air tickets and flights. There are a number of information stands with updated information. There is a voice notification system about flight status. However, according to reviews from tourists, constant noise at the airport and unclear notifications cause inconvenience, so passengers receive the most accurate and understandable information at Goa airport from the online board of aircraft arrivals and departures. Flight delays at the airport can also be reported using inscriptions on simple boards such as chalk price tags.

Goa airport online display

The online charter flight board can tell you how Dabolim Airport works. This display provides information about which aircraft are delayed, which aircraft are expected to arrive, the departure time of aircraft prepared for flight, etc. The latest, most current and accurate information on aircraft departure and arrival times is collected here. Like other similar information systems in different parts of the world, the information board operates in local time, which must be taken into account when applying for information.

Current information is also posted on the official website of the airport in Goa at the link https://translate.google.ru/translate?hl=ru&sl=en&tl=ru&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.goanairport.com%2F&anno=2 you can find the main page of the site (it is in English, but the text is automatically translated), from the main page you can also find the online arrival and departure board of aircraft, respectively, links https://translate.google.ru/translate?hl=ru&sl=en&tl=ru&u=http% 3A%2F%2Fwww.goanairport.com%2F and https://translate.google.ru/translate?hl=ru&sl=en&tl=ru&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.goanairport.com%2F .

Thus, passengers have the opportunity not only to track the location of the aircraft directly using information at the airport, but also to find it out via the Internet.

You can check all flight departures and arrivals at Goa Dabolim Airport, which serves the Goa region of India, using these links. The list contains all the data on the status of the departing or arriving flight.

Video

• Taxi

  The “officials” counter is located at the exit from the airport and is open 24 hours a day. All you need to do is say where you are going and the staff will issue you a receipt. There is also a stand indicating the resorts and distances to them. The approximate cost of the trip is from 425-510 INR. Let's say, to get to one of the most beautiful beaches of Goa - Palolem - you will have to pay about 2300 INR (distance 67 km). The prices are quite high, so it is more profitable to travel with a group of several people. Prices on the page are for October 2018.

  It is not profitable to change money at Dabolim Airport. Therefore, if you do not want to pay for the taxi in advance, you need to inform us about this. The driver will stop at the exchange office along the way, where you can change money at a more favorable rate, and will collect the fare upon arrival.

  When ordering a taxi, it is worth bargaining, as sometimes the initial price may be a little high.

• Bus

  Goa Airport is connected by bus routes to the city of Vasco da Gama and the village of Chikalim, from where you can get to Panaji and then transfer to buses to the resorts. But the buses run irregularly and are almost always overcrowded. The cost of a ticket to Panaji will be around 85 INR in total.

• Transfer

  The fastest and most comfortable option to get there. You need to select a car of a suitable class and capacity in advance, and the driver will meet you at the airport with a name plate. The price indicated at the time of booking will be fixed: for example, traffic jams will not affect it.

There is only one airport in Goa called Dabolim. Its abbreviated name is GOI (Goa International Airport). And even then, this is not exactly a tourist airport: most of it belongs to the Indian Ministry of Defense. Today the airport has two terminals: Terminal 1 serves domestic flights, and Terminal 2 serves international flights.

Goa's "air gate" was built in the 1950s by the Portuguese (at that time the state was a Portuguese colony and was not part of India). But the struggle for Indian independence did its job - and in 1962, all of Goa (including the airport) was captured by the Indian military. Since that time, and to this day, Dabolim remains the property of the military forces of the Indian Republic; a military air unit called “Khansa” is located on its territory.

Travel time Moscow — Dabolim- approximately 7.5 hours.

Due to the fact that the airfield belongs to the Indian Air Force, military flight exercises are held on the territory every day from 8 am to 1 pm, and take-offs and landings of civil aircraft are prohibited, so all aircraft arrive in Goa either late in the evening, or at night, or early in the morning (before start of military fighter exercises).

We once found ourselves in a situation where our arrival was late, which is why the flight was delayed by 4 hours. At this time, the runways of the airport were already occupied by military fighters, and about 300 people sat in the waiting room and watched in silence. We were supposed to take off at about 7 am, but it was possible to take off only around 12 noon. We were lucky, and by some miracle our plane was allowed to take off between the takeoffs of Indian fighters (apparently there was a lunch break). And we already expected to wait until the end of the working day.

Also, due to the military nature of the airport, at the entrance there is always a military man with a machine gun and checks the tickets of everyone who wants to enter. Therefore, everyone must have a printout of their electronic ticket, which shows the flight number and date. Entry to the airport terminal with a ticket is permitted no earlier than 4 hours before the departure of your plane.

Dabolim Airport on the map:

Arrival to Dabolim

Upon arrival in India, all tourists are required to fill out an Arrival card; it is sometimes handed out on planes, but most often you have to take it at the Goa airport and fill it out at the counters, so we advise you to have your own pen with you (there are few pens at the counters, and you have to wait your turn to fill the card takes a long time). The Arrival card contains standard information: arrival flight, departure date, which hotel you will stay in, which cities you plan to visit.

This is what the Arrival Card looks like, which all foreign tourists need to fill out

After filling out the Arrival Card, you need to go with it to border control (if you have an Indian visa pasted in your passport) or to the Visa on Arrival counter (if you applied for an electronic visa, which is pasted into your passport upon arrival).

After passing through border control, we head to the baggage claim area. Dabolim is small, so there are only two ribbons. Local “helpers” are on duty at these belts around the clock, who are in a hurry to snatch your suitcase from your hands in order to take it to a taxi, or to the operator’s desk if you did not arrive on your own. They are dressed in some kind of uniform that makes them look like airport employees, in fact, this uniform is “left-handed”.

They know our main operators flying to Goa, so when a confused tourist hears: “Pegasus, let’s go there,” he is sure that this is an employee of the tour operator, whose duties include escorting tourists to the counter. In fact, this is an ordinary Indian who makes money this way. After you and he find the counter of your tour operator (or taxi), he will begin to demand payment from you for his services. They ask for a lot (according to eyewitnesses, from 5 dollars to 500 rupees), although they have to carry a suitcase no more than 50 meters.

There is a currency exchange at the airport, but the rate is extremely unfavorable. Therefore, if you really need it urgently (for example, to pay for a taxi), exchange a small amount (no more than $50). But it’s best to order a car at a prepaid taxi booth (state prepaid taxi) and tell the driver that you will pay the driver in person. At the window you will be given a piece of paper with a fixed price, and already in your village, you will exchange dollars at a favorable rate and pay the driver. Taxi prices to different villages in Goa are posted at the exit from the airport terminal, so if the taxi driver starts to inflate the price, you should not encourage this. We will provide taxi prices from the airport and distances to popular tourist villages in this article, just below.

State Prepaid Taxi counter at Dabolim Airport

In addition to currency exchange, you can use the ATMs located at the exit of the terminal: simply withdraw money from your card. The ATM dispenses rupees, the conversion takes place inside the bank. The issuance fee for Indian ATMs is standard: 200 rupees. The commission for withdrawing money from your bank may be different: with us, for example, money can be withdrawn without commission anywhere in the world (provided that the withdrawal amount is at least 3,000 rubles). Usually, we withdraw 10,000 rupees, and pay 200 rupees for withdrawal - this turns out to be 2% of the amount. The smaller the amount you withdraw, the less profitable it turns out.

It is worth considering that Indian ATMs work differently than Russian ones. They do not “swallow” the card - you need to insert it all the way and immediately pull it out: the ATM has already counted all the necessary information. After the card is read and removed, you enter the PIN code, select the desired account and enter the required withdrawal amount.

There is also a sale of Indian SIM cards at the exit to the city. Buying them here is extremely unprofitable: they cost several times more than in the villages of Goa, and if the card malfunctions, there will be no one to file a claim with (you won’t go to the airport in a taxi for 1000 rupees to exchange a SIM card for 500).

There are no luggage storage facilities in Dabolim, so leaving your luggage there while you look for accommodation is not possible.

Online scoreboard of Dabolim airport(select the “Departure” or “Arrival” tab) :

Distance from Goa airport to tourist villages and taxi prices

Table with prices from 2017

It is worth considering that at night (from 23:00 to 05:00) another 35% is added to these tariffs. Also, the prepaid taxi charges another 10 rupees from each passenger for luggage.

Departure from Dabolim

We have already said that you can enter the terminal only by presenting your printed electronic ticket to the military at the entrance. What happens after you go inside?

When departing from Goa, your luggage is carefully checked, and then a yellow sticker is placed on the suitcase lock, which cannot be removed without damaging it. This is how they try to secure the flight (so that they don’t put prohibited items in the suitcase after checking). By the way, it is forbidden to carry any batteries in luggage; we once had a children’s suitcase rejected because it contained a remote control for a car with batteries inside.

Lighters are also prohibited from being carried in both carry-on and checked baggage. Therefore, even souvenir lighters from India are also removed from suitcases.

This is the queue at check-in for the Goa-Samara flight at 4 am

Passenger check-in at international departure counters at Dabolim Airport

A service for rewinding luggage with plastic film is available at Dabolim Airport - it costs only 200 rupees. Compared to a similar service in Sheremetyevo, which costs 500 rubles- Indians ask for 2 times less.

We noticed another feature of the Goan airport: special tags are attached to all hand luggage. But this is not the most interesting thing - such tags are issued for hand luggage everywhere. But only at Dabolim airport it will not be possible to bring hand luggage on board without tags: special stamps are placed on these tags after checking the hand luggage on a scanner, and without these stamps you will not be allowed to pass beyond customs control. At other airports, we often don’t even attach “Cabin baggage” tags at all - and we’ve never had a problem.

In general, the Goa air harbor is small, there are a lot of people, there are queues everywhere. Dropping your luggage and going through passport control takes a painfully long time; it is better to arrive at the airport at least 3 hours in advance (unless, of course, you are traveling with an organized transfer from a tour operator).

Until about 2017, no one asked this question: fruits in special baskets were accepted into hand luggage without problems, even if the basket was not the only element of hand luggage, but was an addition to it. To be fair, it is worth saying that according to the rules, transporting fruit in hand luggage has always been prohibited, but no one paid such serious attention to it.

These are the baskets used to carry fruits from Goa in hand luggage

At the end of 2017, for some reason, this rule began to be followed with special care: everyone was forced to check all fruit baskets as luggage. But they didn’t take money for them, as for additional luggage.

Nevertheless, we witnessed how our enterprising Russian tourists still carried baskets of fruit in their hand luggage: they simply did not show them when checking in their luggage, and were successfully able to carry them on board. The same tourists who asked the workers if it was possible to carry THIS and pointed to the baskets were forced to check them in as luggage.

It is worth saying that during our visit in December 2017, all the baskets arrived safe and sound, they were not unloaded onto a belt, but all the baskets were carefully brought on a separate trolley and placed near the luggage belt.

Most of all, those tourists who were forced to check fruit baskets in their luggage were worried that at the Russian border (according to rumors) half of the fruit would be confiscated by workers, and only a small part of what they were carrying would reach the owners. In view of this, they carefully wrapped the baskets with tape. Whether the tape helped, or whether the customs officers came across honest ones, all the fruits checked in as luggage reached their owners in the same quantity as they were checked in.

Duty free and food courts at the airport

The duty-free zone in Dabolim is very, very modest (about the same as in a Russian province). In fact, there is only one small shop with some alcohol and souvenirs, several fast food nooks with very expensive prices, and that’s all.

On the right is the same nook with fast food. There are no tables where you can eat and drink what you bought. Passengers eat on their seats.

Departure hall: in the distance you can see the only duty-free mini-shop, nothing about it

When our flight was delayed for 4 hours, we had to buy expensive and tasteless (and spicy) burgers at one of two food outlets in the departure area. There is no normal food here. Therefore, I can’t even imagine how to feed children here during a long plane delay. I highly recommend, just in case, stocking up on some healthier food for your children in advance.

Goa airport from the landing strip.

There are several ways to get to Goa: land, sea and air. The easiest and fastest way is, of course, by plane. The airport in Goa serves at least 700 flights a year, which is about 90% of all charters to India.

History of the airport

The international airport was built in Goa by the Portuguese back in the 50s of the 20th century. Initially, it was intended exclusively for internal use and served as a transport interchange between the cities of Portuguese India.

Currently operated by the Indian Navy. The main purpose is international tourist flights. It is part of the Hansa military air base.

Goa Airport (India) on the map

If you look at the location of Goa Airport on the map, it becomes clear why it is called Dabolim. It is located in the vicinity of the settlement of the same name in the southern part of the smallest of all Indian states - Goa, on the western coast of the Hindustan Peninsula.

Airport code

According to the coding adopted by IATA, the Goa air port is called GOI (abbreviation GOa International). ICAO designates Dabolim with the code VOGO.

Online scoreboard Goa international flights

The most accurate information about the departure and arrival times of planes in Goa is available on the airport’s online board. For today and until the end of 2017, this is the only reliable source of information. The online scoreboard operates in local time. You can view the scoreboard here

Services at the airport

For passengers waiting for departure, Dabolim has all the conditions: waiting room, shower, toilet, pharmacies, shops (including Duty free), snack bars. After arrival, besides exchange offices, a taxi ordering counter or cash, you are unlikely to need anything.

1. Luggage packing. For an additional fee, the luggage will be packed by employees, but in Dabolim you can buy film and do it yourself.
2. Luggage storage. Upon arrival in Goa, be prepared that there is no luggage storage at the airport.
3. Cafes and restaurants. There are plenty of kiosks, cafes, restaurants and eateries. A special feature is the huge prices and low quality of the products served. Perhaps something will change in 2018, but before that, tourists tried to take food with them in case their flight was delayed.
4. Currency exchange and ATMs. Experienced tourists do not recommend immediately changing all their money at airport exchange offices: the exchange rate will not be favorable. There is an ATM near the old terminal.
5. WiFi. At Goa Airport, Dabolim, WiFi is available in the waiting area. Free for about half an hour. Then you need to pay for the service.
6. Smoking room. Smoking is allowed in designated areas equipped with cigarette lighters. There are kiosks with cigarettes.

The new terminal in Dabolim certainly creates a favorable impression: small but neat. The old one blurs the external picture a little. Waiting for you at the airport:

• lengthy and thorough search;
• long registration;
• unreasonably high prices.

1. Do not change all cash upon arrival.
2. Bargain or demand receipts.
3. In case of flight delay, it is better to take food with you.
4. Here you can buy souvenirs and Himalaya products, but the prices will be higher than in Goa in general.

You can only enter the port with a ticket, and even then no earlier than 4 hours before departure. The infrastructure cannot be called developed, but you are provided with a minimum of amenities.