Flight operations at the Mumbai airport will remain affected till Wednesday evening as efforts are under way to retrieve a SpiceJet Boeing 737-800 aircraft that overshot the runway amid heavy rainfall on Monday night. The primary runway will remain unavailable till 6.30 p.m. on Wednesday hampering travel plans of passengers
At the time of going to press, Air India engineers and technical staff were busy trying to retrieve the Jaipur to Mumbai flight SG 6237 with 160 passengers, which skidded while landing on the flooded runway. The aircraft had been deregistered from Jet Airways and leased by SpiceJet. A 150-foot raft was laid to pull the aircraft back to the runway. The incident had a large-scale impact on airport’s operations. On Tuesday, 55 flights, including 26 international flights, were diverted and over 100 flights were cancelled. IndiGo alone cancelled 100 flights.
The secondary runway was unable to handle all the 800-odd flight movements. On Monday night, the airport was closed for nearly two hours as the Mithi river, which flows underneath the airport, had breached its banks. Meanwhile, pilots complained of braking issues on a wet runway forcing several aircraft to halt operations. Flights resumed in the morning, but in a curtailed manner. Most flights were running several hours behind schedule and passengers were idling to kill time.
Swedish airport and airline tracker Flightradar24 reported a delay of 40% arrivals into Mumbai with an average 23-minute delay. On the departures front, the tracker reported a 62% delay with 271 flights being affected. Eighty-one or 19% of departures were cancelled, according to the tracking website. The taxi pick-up point was also deserted as most flights were cancelled.
IndiGo was impacted the most. In a statement, IndiGo said, “Due to the incident of another airline [SpiceJet] which happened in Mumbai last night and subsequent non-availability of the primary runway, IndiGo’s flight operations were impacted causing 100 cancellations for Tuesday and 30 for Wednesday in order to rebase the aircraft and rotations to the original schedules.”
“The situation was compounded by extreme weather situation and congestion at the airport due to non-availability of mail runway. We will continue to accommodate passengers on next available flights at no additional charge, waiving cancellation/rescheduling fee and refunding the full amount to passengers travelling to and from Mumbai till July 03,” the statement added.
It said passengers were being notified of the change in flight schedules. “We are monitoring the situation in real time and will provide regular updates on our social media platforms. We request passengers to check the flight status before leaving home and reach out to our customer care numbers,” it added.
“Due to heavy rains that have caused flight disruptions, GoAir is accommodating impacted customers on alternate GoAir flights within 24 hours [July 3] subject to availability. Customers who cancel flights for today/within 24 hours will receive full refund,” a GoAir spokesperson said.
SpiceJet in a statement said, “On 1st July 2019, SpiceJet Boeing 737-800 aircraft operated flight SG 6237 from Jaipur to Mumbai. There was heavy rain in Mumbai and the aircraft, after landing, overshot the runway. Passengers were deplaned normally. There was no injury to either the passengers or the crew.”
Mumbai airport has issued a statement saying that the main runway may remain shut for up to 48 hours due to runway excursion of Spicejet flight. It said over 100 flights were cancelled/diverted from Mumbai Airport till now.
Passengers have been advised to check with their airline before travelling to the airport and asked to allocate sufficient travel time for reaching airport keeping weather and road conditions in mind.
”Due to runway excursion by the arriving aircraft, the main runway is not available and the secondary runway is put in use. Please expect delays in flight operations. Our team is trying their best to bring the main runway back in operation and this may take up to 48 hrs,” CSIA in a statement said.
Daniel D’Souza, president and country head, Leisure, SOTC Travel, said due to the heavy downpour in Mumbai, arrivals and departures of flights had been hit. “We had customers whose departures connecting to Egypt, Europe and Asia were delayed. We have re-routed customers on alternate flights. and later departures. We are also updating customers about any cancellation, delay or reschedule,” Mr. D’Souza said.