The airport which is an important gateway for international tourists arriving into the State is open to civilian traffic for only a few hours everyday. While charter aircraft from abroad touch down between 7 am and 10 am on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays; domestic flights are allowed to operate only between 1 pm and 6 pm daily.

Pleas to permit operation of night flights out of Dabolin have not been implemented so far due to inadequate night landing facilities. ``The Instrument Landing System (ILS) at Dabolin is inadequate to handle commercial flights,'' an official of Airport Authority of India informed The Indian Express.

Though the Government of India has sanctioned Rs 50 lakh for recarpetting the airport runway and upgrading the ILS, only a part of the work will be completed in the current financialyear.

``We have prepared the complete schedule of work till June next year and upgradation of ILS is not part of it,'' said the AAI official.

The Central government will have to intervene if night flight landing capability must be made operational at Dabolin during the current tourist season.

Inadequate infrastructure also threatens to jeopardise the State Government's plans to increase the number of charter tourists to Goa. Chief Minister Wilfred D'Souza announced on Tuesday that approvals have been obtained for operation of chartered flights from Denmark and the Netherlands at night. These could now be rescheduled till modifications are made in the airport equipment.

The control of Dabolin airport is a contentious issue with Goan politicians, frequently demanding that the Navy hand over the facility to the State Government. But the Naval authorities insist that there is no need for any quarrel on the issue as civilian operators have underutilised the airport. ``Only 18 charters operate per week whenwe have allowed 26,'' said a spokesman for the Navy.

Airline officials point out that there is not enough out-bound traffic on board commercial airlines being generated from Goa. Both Air India and Indian Airlines, which operate hopping flights through Dabolin to the Gulf, are reporting low capacities.

However, AAI officials insist that the opening up of Dabolin airport full-time to commercial flights would improve the situation. ``Most of the out-bound passengers fly via Bombay due to unavailability of convenient flight,'' said an AAI official.