Runway under repair and four taxiways shut,flights leave up to 1 hr 15 min late

The other three taxiways shut for renovation are November (N),Golf (G) and Zulu (Z). An official of Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) said these taxiways would be fully operational only by January 31.

After getting route clearance,a pilot awaits ground clearance,following which he gives the pushback command. He is then cleared to proceed to the taxiway by the apron control. It is in these areas where there are general delays everyday.

“We are facing a lot of delays and our on-time performance has been affected,” said a senior commander from Air India. “Push-back is not on time and there is a lot of congestion during takeoff. I have faced a delay up to 30 minutes between getting route and ground clearance from ATC. That particular flight was delayed by one hour and 15 minutes.”

“I am a frequent flier; I made about seven trips to various cities in the past three weeks. But in the last week,my flights were delayed by an average of 45 minutes,” said Ankit Sinha,an event manager from Kandivili.

Newsline had reported earlier that there has been no change in the number of daily flights from the airport in the winter schedule that comes into effect on October 27. The airport averages around 630 daily flight movements. However,an airport spokesperson has said that a drop in 80-90 flight movements are expected on Tuesdays, starting October 27,when the airport’s cross runway would be completely shut for six hours for re-carpeting work.

However,an airport spokesperson denied that there have been delays in departures. “Only a portion of some taxiways and not the entire taxiways are closed for maintenance work. The portion that has been closed had no impact on flight movement and the average on-time performance,” the MIAL spokesperson said.