AAI stir hits flights, customs revenue

According to airport officials the five flights belonged to Alliance Air, Indian Airlines, Jet Airways, and Sahara Airlines. In fact, one Alliance Air flight had taxied to the runway and was readying for take-off when the runway was shut yesterday afternoon, according to sources. The main runway at Mumbai airport is closed on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays between 1.30 pm and 3.30 pm for maintenance. However, today no such delays were reported as all flights departing Mumbai left well ahead of the deadline.

The stir will also affect flights being diverted from Delhi airport to Mumbai on account of foggy weather conditions there. According to the officers, non standard parking practices’ are adopted to accommodate diverted flights as the parking bays at Mumbai are generally full, say sources. For instance, last weekend when 13 flights were diverted to Mumbai, many of the aircraft were accommodated on taxi-tracks as all the parking bays were occupied.

Henceforth, said the agitating officers, aircraft will not be allowed to divert to Mumbai if the parking bays are occupied. Mumbai airport authorities have allotted 22 bays for international flights. Its 27 bays reserved for aircraft owned by domestic carriers and five bays for cargo operations are considered inadequate for the wide-bodied aircraft used by international carriers. Consequently flights unable to land in Delhi and disallowed to land at Mumbai may have to be diverted to Karachi airport, say officials.

Officers and managers of the International Airports Division of the AAI are demanding parity in pay and perks with their counterparts in the National Airports Division. They began the stir in November last year, but maintained normalcy after Ranjan Chatterjee, chairman, AAI assured them that their grievances would be looked into. The stir has also affected cargo clearance at the city airport with the officials refusing to clear cargo beyond their stipulated working hours.