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Mumbai airport sets record with 51 flight movements per hour

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Mumbai airport, which has been desperately pushing to increase its operational efficiency, reached a major milestone on Wednesday morning when it registered 51 aircraft movements in an hour.

The development apparently seems to have surpassed the expectation of even the Air Traffic Control (ATC) officials who had kept their target at 48 movements per hour.

The average aircraft movement till recently hovered around 38 during peak hours. In contrast, Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) in Delhi crossed over 73 aircraft movement last year, albeit with operations on all the three runway that it has.

The development gains significance as it means lesser time for the passengers during their journey from Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA), which is counted among the busiest airports in Asia. In 2013-14, the CSIA saw 2,73,540 aircraft movement, including passenger, cargo, general aviation and defence. Correspondingly, 32,221,395 passengers were ferried in these flights.

"The record flight movement gains significance, especially with regard to CSIA as we operate with only one runway," said Jayant Dasgupta, GM, ATC (Mumbai). ATC officials said that the milestone was recorded between 10.30am and 11.30am.

Aviation experts attribute the increase in aircraft movements to the continuous expenditure on development of infrastructure. They say the construction of two new Rapid Exit Taxiways (RETs) has reduced the runway occupancy time for the arriving flight to less than 49 seconds.

Furthermore, the angle of approach to the primary runway has been optimised from 3.3 degrees to 3 degrees. "This allows for easier approach by aircraft to the runway," said AB Joshi, joint GM (Air Traffic Management).

In the future, the airport authorities plan to construct a new taxiway parallel to secondary Runway 14. Furthermore, there is also a plan to construct an underground tunnel that would run underneath runway 14, connecting the domestic and international terminals. This would reduce the time required for inter-terminal transfer, thereby reducing the travel time for passengers further.

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