MUMBAI: Over-lapping flight schedules, on-going construction activity and a unique land-locked location are some of the reason behind perennial delays at Mumbai airport. Though the situation has improved drastically over the last couple of years, flights during peak traffic hours still choke the airport and lead to prolonged delays. However, airport experts feel that it would be unfair to compare Mumbai with other metro airports as it faces major space constraints and handles the second highest passenger traffic in the country.
Mumbai has always been a land-locked airport, located in the heart of the city and flanked by slums and residential areas and roads. Over the last seven years, it has witnessed an almost threefold increase in passenger traffic. It currently handles 30 million passengers, next to Delhi airport which caters to a little over 34 million annually. In terms of area, however, the Mumbai airport is spread over 1190 acres which is only one fifth of Delhi's 5,000 acres. Apart from that, other airports like Bangalore, Chennai and even Kolkata handle only 5-10 million passengers.
"On one had we are land-locked. On the other, we are constructing a new terminal and developing the air-side while the airport is still operational," said a Mumbai International Airport Pvt Ltd (MIAL). "The flight handling capacity has already gone up at Mumbai from 36 flight movements per hour to 45. It will go up further once the network of taxiways is ready," he added.
Airport officials said that one has to look at delays with respect to scheduing of flights as well. During peak hours (9 am-12 noon and 8pm to midnight), the slots allotted in Mumbai are more than the handling capacity. Officials said that there are multiple flights slotted at the same time, making delays inevitable. ""No two flights can land or depart at the same time. This creates a bottleneck during morning and evening when flight movement is high," said a senior Air Traffic Control (ATC) official. Also, due to the on-going construction on a taxiway network, some important taxi tracks are currently closed. "This is why departing flights sometimes take 10-11 minutes from the apron to the runway holding point instead of the usual five minutes," he added.
Also, the runways at Mumbai airport are intersecting and not parallel. ""This is why simultaneous landing and take-off is not possible,"" said another official. Officials said that the OTPof airlines will improve once the airport masterplan, with parallel taxiways on both runways is ready. ""Airlines also have to pull up their socks and train pilots to vacate the runway quickly. Sticking to schedule is a collaborative process. Airport operator, ATC and airlines will have to achieve it together,"" said an official who works for a private carrier.
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