MUMBAI: Airlines cancelled around 225 flights on Monday as the Mumbai
airport was shut for six hours from 11am to carry out scheduled pre-monsoon preventive
runway maintenance work. Passengers booked on evening departures out of Mumbai were hit by delays.
All arrivals landed before 11 am, but a few departure flights took off post 11 am. "Around 11.20 am, both runways were shut down for flight operations,'' said an airport source. A
Mumbai International Airport Pvt Ltd spokesperson said that on Tuesday too, the Mumbai airport will remain shut between 11 am and 5 pm.
Said a Mumbai air traffic control official: "Since airlines were informed about the closure in advance, cancellations were planned ones. Flight schedules were changed and passengers informed about the changes in advance."' After the airport reopened, average flight delay was only 5-10 minutes till 6 pm, he said. However as flights bundled into the evening peak hour, the departures post 7 pm were delayed. According to flight tracking website Flightradar24, around 8 pm, departures were delayed by an average of 30 minutes, while arrivals were delayed by an average of 15 minutes. Post-monsoon maintenance work on the runway intersection will be carried out on October 23.
Alone Bajpai, CEO, ixigo, an online travel portal, quite a few flights were delayed. "We urge travellers to check with their airline if they are travelling to or from Mumbai on April 10. Even with only a few flights operating, 4% of the inbound flights to Mumbai have been affected. Additionally 8% of the outbound flights have been delayed," he said.
