Mumbai international airport to resume full time operations on main runway from June 2011

After a gap of seven months, Mumbai international airport will resume full time operations on the main runway, 27/09, from June 2011, as per an Indian Express report. This will make flight movement easier by reducing delays, at least till the onset of monsoons. Since November 2010, the main runway has been closed for re-carpeting work from 9 AM to 5 PM. During this period, the secondary runway, 14/32, was used. “The notam for the eight hour closure of the main runway is till the end of May 2011. The work in on schedule,” said a Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) spokesperson. “It will definitely reduce delays. On the secondary runway, we have to backtrack to the starting point for international departures. This increases the time between departures. It can be avoided on the main runway,” said a pilot.

At present, Mumbai airport sees around 740 movements in a day, including general aviation movements. The same number of movements on the main runway will reduce the runway occupancy time for aircraft, thereby decreasing delays. The secondary runway handles fewer flights per hour than the main runway also because it does not have a parallel taxi track. The parallel taxi track for the secondary runway is half constructed and is blocked by the ATC tower. MIAL will be able to complete the full-length taxi track only by June-end next year, when the ATC will shift to the tower being constructed at the entry to the domestic terminal. Also, aircraft landing on the secondary runway had to put up with tail winds, which makes operations tougher, increases airspace congestion delays.

Anticipating the end of the eight-hour main runway closure, Mumbai airport was allotted additional slots in the summer schedule, as compared to the previous winter schedule. In the last winter schedule from October to March 2-1-, the airport had 694 daily slots. In the summer schedule beginning April 2-1-, all airlines have been cumulatively allotted 714 slots. Although the main runway will be open for operations, it will be shortened by around 250 metres. “The runway will be a few hundred metres shorter till the Mithi River de-silting work is on, but that is not going to affect aircraft load,” the MIAL spokesperson said.
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