No Tuesday noon flights from Oct 25

If you have already booked a ticket to Delhi or London on a Tuesday afternoon after October 25, you might want to reschedule.

With the planned closure of the intersection of the cross runways at Mumbai airport on Tuesdays, flights on these sectors won’t be able to take off between noon and 6pm. This situation will persist until April 2010.

Mumbai airport has two intersecting runways. From October 27, maintenance of secondary runway 14:32 and its intersection with 09:27 is scheduled to begin. While the secondary runway will be closed for three months, the intersection will be closed every Tuesday for six hours from noon to 6pm, an official of Mumbai International Airport Limited (Mial) said.

Most airlines have decided not to schedule flights on sectors like Delhi and London in this period. A total of 174 flights operate in these six hours, 27 to Delhi and five for London. “We are incorporating changes in the winter schedule and rescheduling flights accordingly,” said a Jet Airways spokesperson.

But Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines, which have the highest number of small aircrafts like ATRs, will be operating flights on shorter routes like Ahmedabad, Indore, Bhuj, Bhopal, etc. “Smaller aircraft like the ATR, Airbus 319, Airbus 320, and Boeing 737-700 do not need the entire stretch of runway to take off.  They require just 1,500 metres,” said a Kingfisher official.

The shortened length available on main runway 09:27 will be 1,703 metres. The length has been approved by the director-general of civil aviation (DGCA).

Airlines like Air India, however, will cancel flights scheduled for these six hours on Tuesdays.