Mumbai airport’s main runway to remain shut for 7 hours everyday till Feb 17, delays expected
Representational Image (Picture Courtesy: Plane Spotters India)
Passengers travelling to or from Mumbai airport will have to brace for delays for next few days as its main runway will be shut for seven hours till February 17 for upgradation work.
The runway will be shut from 10 am to 5 pm, post which regular operations will resume. The work started on Thursday and is expected to complete by February 17. Till then, all flights will take off or land on the secondary runway.
Since the secondary runway is shorter than the main runway, it is not as well equipped as the main runway to handle a flurry of flights.
During the two week period, airport authorities will undertake the upgradation of the ‘localiser’ component in the instrument landing system (ILS).
According to officials, the new localiser will allow flights to align with the centre of the runway from a distance of 50 km, thereby allowing for a more precise and safe landing.
The main runway, however, will be operational on Wednesdays (February 7 and 14) when the secondary runway will undergo routine maintanance work.
Even though the main runway will be operational after 5 pm, airlines like Jet Airways and Indigo took to social media yesterday to notify passengers about possible delays due to backlog. An average delay of 15-30 minutes was observed yesterday evening.
“#9Wupdate: Due to main runway unavailability at #MumbaiAirport between 1000 and 1700 hrs till 17th Feb (except 7 & 14 Feb), our flights to & from Mumbai may get affected,” Jet Airways tweeted.
Meanwhile, passengers have been advised to check the flight status for morning and afternoon flights prior to arriving the airport.
Mumbai airport handled 837 flights a day or one every 65 seconds on an average in 2017, making it the world’s busiest single-runway airport.
