SpiceJet has announced flights between Rajkot and Goa. With this, Rajkot has now become the 3rd city in Gujarat to be connected to Goa with a nonstop flight, with the other two being Ahmedabad and Surat.
Starting 8th May, 2021, SpiceJet will start flying between Rajkot in Gujarat and Goa. The airline will be using Bombardier Q-400 aircrafts on this route.
***UPDATE*** (3rd May 2021): SpiceJet has cancelled all of its flights from Rajkot for the whole month of May. This means that the brand-new Rajkot-Goa route is also delayed and will now start from 1st June 2021. SpiceJet is now taking bookings for all of its Rajkot flights from 1st June 2021.
Flight schedule of Rajkot-Goa-Rajkot route:
- Rajkot-Goa
- Departure time: 14:00
- Arrival time: 16:20
- Flight time: 2 hours and 20 minutes
- Flight number: SG3701
- Frequency: Daily
- Goa-Rajkot
- Departure time: 17:05
- Arrival time: 19:30
- Flight time: 2 hours and 25 minutes
- Flight number: SG3702
- Frequency: Daily
The Indian low-cost carrier recently announced flights between Rajkot and Hyderabad. The airline will use the same aircraft coming in from Hyderabad. This means that the aircraft will operate Hyderabad-Rajkot-Goa-Rajkot-Hyderabad route.
So this means that from 8th May, the timings of Hyderabad-Rajkot-Hyderabad route will change. The new timings are:
- Hyderabad-Rajkot
- Departure time: 11:20
- Arrival time: 13:35
- Flight time: 2 hours and 15 minutes
- Flight number: SG3749
- Frequency: Daily
- Rajkot-Hyderabad
- Departure time: 19:50
- Arrival time: 21:55
- Flight time: 2 hours and 5 minutes
- Flight number: SG3750
- Frequency: Daily
Capturing the market
SpiceJet is focusing on leisure customers on this route. Goa is a big market in terms of leisure travellers and the whole Saurashtra region (the region in which Rajkot is situated) will be benefitted from the route.
Earlier, passengers from the Saurashtra region had to travel 3-7 hours by car to Ahmedabad and then catch a flight to Goa. If the travellers did not want to take a flight to Goa, then they had to travel by train to Goa with a journey time of 22 hours. With the launch of this route, passengers will not need to travel all the way to Ahmedabad.
Growth of Rajkot Airport
In the past two months, Rajkot airport has seen tremendous growth. However, it was not the same earlier.
In 2019, Jet Airways used to operate 3-4 flights a day to Mumbai while Air India used to operate a daily flight from Rajkot to Mumbai and New Delhi. So in a way, Jet Airways dominated the Rajkot market. However, it was one of the several cities that was affected by Jet Airways closure.
Industrialists and frequent commuters were very much affected by the closure of Jet Airways. Only two flights remained from Rajkot: one to Mumbai and one to New Delhi. Then came SpiceJet. The low-cost carrier announced nonstop flights from Rajkot to Mumbai and after some time, to New Delhi. However, this two routes were not enough for passengers from Rajkot. The frequent commuters wanted more flights to cities other than Mumbai and Delhi.
On 24th February 2021, SpiceJet launched flights between Rajkot and Bengaluru. This marked the beginning of a new chapter in the history of Rajkot Airport as it was for the first time that a scheduled flight took-off from the city to a destination other than Mumbai and New Delhi. However, this was very brief. At the beginning of summer schedule of 2021 on 28th March, the carrier stopped flying between the two cities due to slot issues at Bengaluru airport.
Then, on 7th March 2021, SpiceJet started flying between Rajkot and Hyderabad. And finally, Indigo started flying between Rajkot and Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad & Bengaluru from 28th March making it the 4th airline to operate at Rajkot.
From 3-5 daily flights in 2019 to 12-14 daily flights in 2021, Rajkot Airport has come a long way and the addition of the Goa route is just another addition in its history.
Featured image by Aeronautics Online
What do you think of Rajkot-Goa flight and the growth of Rajkot Airport? Let me know in the comments section below.
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4 replies on “SpiceJet to fly nonstop between Rajkot and Goa”
Rajkot-Goa flight would surely be very useful and a hit but it may get less occupancy initially for a few months due to covid and off season. Rajkot still needs flights to some other destinations.
Yes Rajkot-Goa flight maybe successful as it will be serving the whole of Saurashtra region. Due to the current COVID-19 situation in the country, initially it may get less occupancy. But studies show that leisure destinations like Goa are very successful in terms of business. So once the COVID-19 situation improves in the country, it may be going full.
And SpiceJet will be using their small 78 seater Bombardier Q400 on this route so I think that it should not be difficult for the airline to fill seats on this route. Let’s see all this when the flight begins on 8th May.
Which destinations do you think Rajkot needs to get flights to?
I think now Rajkot should get connectivity with Chennai Coimbatore and Kolkata.
Chennai – Not a single train direct goes to Chennai. So whichever airline start this route will have huge crowd.
Coimbatore – Rajkot is a huge business hub and so as Coimbatore. Connecting these two business cities will definitely boost the business.
Kolkata – There is no direct air connectivity to Eastern India. This will be very feasible for the crowd traveling to Darjeeling, Jagannath Puri etc.
These are the 3 destination which now airlines should focus on connecting with Rajkot and rest destination later.
Hello,
Thank you for sharing your views. In my opinion, now any more new routes may not be possible at Rajkot due to capacity issues. With a single runway, a single terminal able to accommodate 150 passengers at a time and 12-14 flights a day already, Rajkot Airport is at its maximum in terms of capacity. Any more flights would mean that congestion would be a very big issue. Once the new terminal is up and running, then it will not face any issue like congestion if more flights are there.
I totally agree that travellers and frequent commuters would want more flights to new destinations. But I also think that filling the seats to these destinations would be a big challenge for the airline. If the airline uses a small aircraft like ATR or a Q-400, then it can get occupancy but if they use Airbus A319/A320, then it get can very hard to fill the seats.
All the above three destinations which you mentioned can have flights but personally, I am not expecting them to start in the near future.
Cheers!!