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ShareMumbai: With the monsoons advancing, passengers at the Mumbai airport should be prepared for more delays.Reason: the airlines have increased the flight slots but the cross runway operations have to be suspended due to poor visibility.
On July 4, flight schedules went haywire as the main runway was closed for 40 minutes due to a tyre-burst of a Saudi Airline aircraft. "The secondary runway was closed as the cross-runway operations were suspended as the visibility had fallen to 800 metres," the spokesperson for Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) said.For cross-runway operations, the required visibility is 3,000 metres. As a result, all arrivals and departures were delayed by over 45 minutes, there were two go-arounds and at least four diversions to Ahmedabad.
On July 8 too, flight schedules went for a toss because of rains. The flights were delayed by more than 45 minutes. "The problem will come up every time it rains heavily. Delays will be a common norm," said an official from the Mumbai airport. The problem has become severe with the start of cross-runway operation (CRO) at Mumbai airport from the first week of June. In fact, the operations began at the insistence of the director general of civil aviation (DGCA) to ease the traffic situation at Mumbai airport.
"But what has happened is exactly opposite of it.Looking at the CRO, more slots than the required number were given to the airline," said the airport official.For instance, the Mumbai air traffic control (ATC) has the capacity to handle 30 flights (arrivals and departures) in an hour owing to a single runway operation. "But with CRO the number of flights-per-hour has increased from 34 to 37 an hour during peak hours. And, at times, it goes even to 40 an hour," added the official.
