Air traffic crowds Indian skies: study

MUMBAI, July 28: Indian airspace, particularly the skies over northern India, has in the past seven years emerged as one of the six most co...

MUMBAI, July 28: Indian airspace, particularly the skies over northern India, has in the past seven years emerged as one of the six most congested air corridors in the world handling up to 40 aircraft movements every hour during peak traffic.

According to a report by the Geneva-based Air Transport Action Group (ATAG), aircraft movements on busy days have risen from 144 aircraft daily in 1990 to 242 in 1996. Aircraft movements peak at around 8 every evening. The study attributes this to the bunching of airline departures from South-East Asian airports to Europe so that flights can stick to air curfew hours in Western countries.

ATAG forecasts further rise in the density of air traffic in the Asia/Pacific region with traffic movements increasing by 7.4 per cent annually.

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The study says there is no capacity constraints on the runway of Mumbai airport. However, its apron and terminal buildings are full during most of the day. It felt Mumbai airport is close to reaching its declared capacity of 21 hourly movement of aircraft during peak hours.

Runway utilisation increased from 11 aircraft movements during peak hours in 1990 to 19 in 1996. The emergence of domestic flights concentrating in the early mornings and late afternoons have created fresh peak hours, the study said.

Mumbai airport is ranked seventh in the Asia/Pacific region for the number of passengers handled after Seoul, Hong Kong, Tokyo-Narita, Bangkok, Sydney and Osaka-Kansai.