Flight operation at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport is set to take a hit as the primary runway will remain partially closed between November 1, 2019 and Match 28, 2020, Mumbai International Airport Pvt Ltd said Friday. The primary runway 27 will remain closed for operations between 9.30 am and 5.30 pm for six days a week, officials said. It will remain open for the entire day only on Sunday and on festivals and holidays, including Christmas and New Year’s Day, during the five-month period. The runway, which sees more than 1,000 flight movements daily, will being closed for “major rehabilitation and re-carpeting work of the tarmac”, MIAL said. During this period, the airport will rely solely on its secondary runway 32 for flight operations for the daily eight-hour closure. The daytime closure means that international flights, which usually land and take off at night, will be able to use the primary runway. Only 15 international flights operate during day time from Mumbai international airport. Long haul flights that operate bigger aircraft can only land on the primary runway. Referring to potential flight delays, a source, on the condition of anonymity, said, “The primary runway has rapid exit taxiways which means aircraft can exit the runway quicker once they land. When the secondary runway is in use, aircraft spend a longer time on the taxiways, which means flight movements will slow down slightly and there might be delays. However, the situation shall not be as bad as February because the airport will be operational at all times and majority of international traffic trickles in post evening and into the wee hours.” Mumbai airport faced runway closures between February 7 and March 30, when both runway 27 and 32 were closed for operations for six hours, from 11 am to 5 pm, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The closure necessitated due to re-carpeting and overlay work on the intersection of the two runways and had led to airlines having to cancel and reschedule multiple flights. The intersection of the two runways makes Mumbai a single runway airport.
