First charter flight of foreign tourists arrives after almost 22 months

After the Central government allowed the landing of charter flights at Goa’s only airport from November 15, interest of international charter companies has slowly started picking up. The Air Asthana flight landed at Dabolim International Airport at 7 a.m., according to Caper Travels, which arranged the charter flight from Kazakhstan.For the arriving tourists, Goa offers a huge difference in the weather conditions of 23 degrees Celsius here as against -6 degrees Celsius in Almaty, Kazakhstan along with the sun, sand and the seas.The second flight will arrive on Thursday, December 16, and the third flight will arrive on Saturday, December 18. Air Asthana is operating for the first time in Goa’s tourism history, and will have two flights flying every week on Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday till the end of March 2022.The tourism season in Goa begins from October and lasts till May each year, with Russia and the UK are top source markets for Goa tourism. The Scandinavian countries account for nearly 10% of total charter arrivals each season. This year, amid the Omicron scare in the UK, TUI, one of the largest charter operators in the UK-Goa charter sector, is learnt to have postponed flight operations.



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