CSIA handles 1,003 flights on June 5, beats own record of 988 flights in a day

Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport

Handling 1,003 flight movements — take offs and landings — using a single runway on June 5, Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA), Mumbai handled the highest air traffic in India till date. It broke its own record of handling 988 flight movements in a day.

According to Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL), the airport had to accommodate additional flights, which were diverted to the nearby airports on Monday due to heavy rainfall.

“Due to heavy rainfall on Monday, the aircraft were diverted to the nearby airports and were later were accommodated immediately as the rains stopped. This led to increase in the flight movements,” the MIAL official said.

The airport is the second busiest airport in the world that operates on a single runway. While the primary runway can handle up to 48 arrivals and departures per hour, the secondary runway has a capacity of 35 flight movements per hour.

On Tuesday, the airport handled between 48-50 flight movements every hour in the 24-hour time frame. Sources from Air Traffic Control (ATC) said that their highest per hour flight movement reached 51 on Tuesday.

“As many as 25 flights arriving in Mumbai had to be diverted to other airports due to heavy rainfall on Monday. We had to suspend operations on the main runway for at least an hour due to the issue. After rainfall reduced, we resumed flight movements,” an ATC official said.

According to senior ATC officials, the airport recorded at least 36 arrivals from a total of 46 flights movements in an hour due to the diversion of flights the previous day. The single-runway operated Mumbai airport handled 48.49 million passengers in 2017-18, registering a 7.4 per cent growth over 2016-17.

“Each condition including the wind pattern, type and weight of aircraft contributed in achieving the highest number of flights on June 5. Only because these conditions were favorable, operations could continue,” Rajiv Saxena, General Manager, ATC said.

However, ATC officials said that there may be a repeat of this situation if it continues to rain heavily in the city. “It is impossible to allow flights movements during days when the wind flow is maximum. In such situations, flights have to be diverted,” the official added.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted heavy rainfall for the city on June 9 and 10. Officials said that airlines have been asked to store up extra fuel to handle additional flight movements during the weekend.

Back in May 2017, Mumbai airport became the world’s busiest single-runway airport by handling an average of 837 daily flights in fiscal 2017, racing ahead of London’s Gatwick airport. A report by Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation noted that Mumbai airport had reached 94 per cent passenger handling capacity and will reach saturation point in 2018.The Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi handles close to 1,400 flights movements using three runways.