Flight arrival delay reduced, traffic improved at Mumbai airport: Govt | News – Business standard

The Civil Aviation Ministry on Wednesday said the air traffic situation has improved and delays in flight arrivals at Mumbai airport have reduced, almost two months after directions, including reduction in the number of flights, were issued to address congestion at the airport to take.

The city’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) is one of the busiest airports in the country.

Comparing air traffic trends based on flight arrivals between the time periods of November 11 to December 10, 2023 and February 16 to 24, 2024, the ministry said its initiatives are showing results and the situation is also being closely monitored.

In the period from February 16 to 24, there were 4,337 arrivals at the airport, according to the ministry, and of those there were no delays of more than an hour, while 178 aircraft were delayed by 30 to 60 minutes.

As many as 570 planes arrived ahead of schedule, 2,469 planes were delayed by 0 to 15 minutes and 1,120 planes were delayed by 15 to 30 minutes, according to the data.

Meanwhile, there were 14,476 arrivals in the period from November 11 to December 10, 2023. The data showed that 1,641 aircraft were delayed by more than an hour, 2,141 aircraft were delayed by 30 to 60 minutes, 2,083 aircraft were delayed by 15 to 30 minutes and 3,632 aircraft from 0 to 15 minutes.

A total of 4,979 aircraft arrived ahead of schedule.

“Aircraft flying earlier than the approved slot (marked as ahead of schedule in the data) will cause congestion and delays for other aircraft adhering to the schedule, which in turn will have a cascading effect on the other schedule movements. These movements were also for improvements and airlines were asked to adhere to the allocated slots,” the statement said.

The airport has two intersecting runways that cannot be operated simultaneously. There are therefore only operations on one runway with a peak hour capacity of 46 aircraft movements (arrivals and departures) per hour during High Intensity Runway Operations (HIRO).

The aircraft movement capacity per hour is 44 during the non-HIRO period.

To ease congestion, the ministry on January 2 directed Mumbai airport operator MIAL and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to restrict non-scheduled flights for certain periods.

Later, on February 15, the ministry ordered aircraft movements to be reduced from 46 per hour to 44 during the HIRO period, and from 44 to 42 during the non-HIRO period.

The ministry said MIAL (Mumbai International Airport Ltd) in collaboration with airlines has been implementing the guidelines since February 20.

“All domestic airlines were also advised to strictly adhere to the slots allocated by MIAL to avoid air congestion,” it added.

Following the directions, airlines have also reduced the number of flights to and from Mumbai airport.

An analysis by AAI concluded that excessive slot allocation and poor slot compliance were major contributors to traffic congestion at the airport, following which the ministry had issued directions, including restriction of flights.

First print: February 28, 2024 | 12:49 pm IST