Departures all round: airport from tradition,flights on time

“This has happened because of cooperation of all stakeholders,especially the airlines,” said M G Jhungare,general manager,ATC.

“Between 5.30 am to 9 pm,92 per cent of the domestic departures from Mumbai were on time. Six of the eight domestic airlines achieved 100 per cent on-time performance between these hours,” said an MIAL spokesperson. “This is despite the fact that the secondary runway was not in use due to bad weather,” he added. The only two airlines that saw delays were Air India and Jet Airways.

Since Monday,the ATC has been implementing the DGCA’s October 2009 air transport circular 10,which says any flight that fails to apply for push-back and engine start-up 15 minutes ahead of departure would lose its slot and need to apply again for the next available vacant slot. This is targeted specifically at flights taking off during the peak hours in the early morning and evening.

On Monday,nearly 90 flights were given revised slots,15 of these delayed by more than an hour. Airlines performed better on Tuesday the number of slot revisions coming down to around 50.

On Wednesday,ATC said that only four flights were delayed by an hour and a few others by 15-30 minutes. Air India said four of its flights were delayed by about 30 minutes. “We had more on-time departures than any other airline,” said a Jet Airways official.