Struggles at Mumbai airport

The problem:

Mumbai’s choked airport is a pain point for travelers. From the city due to incessant flight delays and now the authorities are struggling how to handle the mega city’s growing traffic till the Navi Mumbai’s airport gets ready in about four years. While Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) is the world’s busiest single runway airport, aviation agencies will brainstorm this week to see if it is possible to somehow increase aircraft handling capacity without compromising safety.

Solutions:

(AAI) will hold a review with Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) and air traffic controllers (ATC). AAI chairman Guruprasad Mohapatra will meet officials from ATC and MIAL to see what more can be done as CSIA is now operating at full capacity and Mumbai’s (air traffic handling) will increase when Navi Mumbai is ready. they will see what improvement can be done in the next three to four years, till Navi Mumbai is ready. they are reviewing to see if capacity of CSIA can be increased.”

Why problems occurred?

On a daily average, Mumbai handles 950 flights daily. The average hourly movement is 46 (landing plus take off), a number which sometimes goes up to 52. Having two cross runways means only one can be used at a time and CSIA is the world’s busiest single runway airport.

A CSIA official said the airport is always looking at ways to augment utilization by looking at terminals, airside and city side. “Capacity of each segment has to rise to handle more flights. We are constantly seeing what can be done to handle more traffic. We are anyway the world’s busiest single runway airport,” said the official. Delhi, thanks to its three runways, is ahead at 1,300 daily flights.

Mumbai, however, remains the most delay-prone big airport in India. The DGCA every month gives out OTP of domestic flights at four metro airports of Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru. Mumbai is always at the bottom of punctuality of airlines for severe congestion.