The airport is getting a facelift, but the airlines are taking flight. The latest to join the no-go list is the city’s only direct air link with Goa.

IndiGo airline, which had hit the Calcutta-HyderabadGoa high way a week before Durga puja 2007, has decided to withdraw the flight from April. Last week, Kingfisher airline had withdrawn its Calcutta flight to Port Blair, which is another popular tourist destination.

“Goa is a seasonal destination and there won’t be much passenger load,” claimed an IndiGo official on Tuesday. “Seaside destinations are not preferred in summer. Passenger count picks up again from October,” added the official.

Tour operators were quick to shoot down this claim. “Goa has round-the-year appeal for tourists, especially honeymooners. More than 20 per cent of domestic tourists from Calcutta visit Goa every year,” said Anil Punjabi, the chairman (east) of the Travel Agents Federation of India. “The withdrawal will definitely affect tourist inflow that saw a sharp rise in the past six months,” he added.

After March 29, the IndiGo flight will take the Calcutta-Hyderabad-Mumbai route. Trade sources said this would be a “far more lucrative” sector for the low-cost airline, with demand from business travellers assured round-the-year.

The Calcutta-Hyderabad-Goa flight — which at present can cost a couple no more than Rs 10,000 for a round trip — could be revived in the winter schedule.

The buzz in the international skies is that China Eastern, connecting Kunmin with Calcutta, is also poised to cut down operations. Launched last year with three flights a week and later increased to five, airline sources said it could be rolled back to three soon. China Eastern officials were tightlipped.

But the dark cloud over Calcutta airport does have its share of silver lining. Lufthansa is increasing frequency from June 3, with flights between Calcutta and Frankfurt up from three to five a week. On the domestic front, Deccan launches a daily flight to Jorhat via Guwahati from March 30.