VASCO, Feb. 29 -- Admitting a drop in passengers' footfall, Director of Goa Airport Dhanamjaya Rao on Wednesday ruled out the possibility of shutting down the Dabolim International Airport.

Reacting to the Qatar Airways announcement to shift its operations from Dabolim airport to Mopa international airport from June this year, Rao said that the airlines operator take their own decisions and that the Airport Authority had to respect their decision. He said that Qatar Airways was one flight daily from Doha-Qatar to Goa.

Admitting that there has been decline in the number of passengers and flights operations after the commissioning of Mopa airport in December 2022, Rao said that the Dabolim airport handled 8.4 million passengers in the fin...