Mumbai airport runways to shut for 6 hours on 2 days

The two cross-runways at Mumbai airport will remain shut between 11am and 5pm Monday and on Tuesday for monsoon repairs. The closing of runways is expected to cause air traffic congestion, which will lead to consequential delays on Tuesday. In October, flight operations were severely hit due to a pothole on the main runway.

Maintenance work will be carried out on the intersection of the main (09) and secondary (27) runway. The airport operator – Mumbai International Airport Pvt Ltd (MIAL) had informed all airlines earlier about the planned shutdown. All airlines operating to and from the city airport have either cancelled or rescheduled their flights during these hours. A Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) was issued regarding the same, last month. While Air India announced that four of its flights would be diverted, it has cancelled 34 flights on both days. The rescheduled flights include AI 611 and 612 (Mumbai- Jaipur) and vice versa, AI 680 (Mumbai- Mangalore) and AI 696 (Varanasi- Mumbai).

Jet Airways rescheduled 17 international and 53 domestic flights and cancelled six international and 64 domestic flights. An Airports Authority of India (AAI) official said that the air traffic flow management (ATFM) system will be implemented after evening, once the runway gets operational post 5pm. This will be done to regulate traffic and avoid air congestion.” A senior airport official, however, said that though all necessary measures have been taken to have minimum impact on passengers, traffic congestion is expected. “The effect of airport closure will gradually reduce and everything will be brought to normal,” said the official.