Shortage of bays at airport hits airlines’ schedules

Despite being on time, airlines are getting delayed be due to shortage of bays at the Mumbai airports.

According to airport sources, due to modernisation of the Mumbai airport, certain bays are unavailable. As a result, even if the airlines are running on schedule, they are prepared for a 30-40 minute delay. However, Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) maintains that there is no shortage and that the problem is due to certain airlines occupying the bays for a longer period.

Although the air traffic at Mumbai airport is 676 per day instead of the earlier 700, airlines are still getting delayed significantly.  “Even if I land on time, I have to wait at least for half an hour to find a bay,” said a pilot from Jet Airways. “Either I am waiting on the taxiway or at the apron.”

There are 100 bays - 60 domestic and 40 at the international terminals.  “At night, seven out of the 40 bays are not available. This includes five bays that were at terminal 2A which was recently demolished. And two bays at Apron M,” said an airport source.
According to airlines their international operations are most affected. “As the aircrafts that are parked on the bays near the terminal do not vacate on time, we are given remote bays,” said a source from Kingfisher Airlines.

For instance, for a flight which is parked on remote bay and is depart at 10 pm, the airline has to start boarding the passengers at 9.10 pm.  “We have to take the passengers in the bus to the remote bay. The driver has to drive within permissible limit. Then the fuel dowsers need to be brought there to fuel the aircraft.  All this takes a lot of time,” the source added. 

However, when contacted, the spokesperson for MIAL said that the flights were delayed not because of the shortage of bays, but due to few airlines not vacating the bay on time.