New Delhi: Every third Air India flight taking off from Mumbai airport last month was delayed. Though Air India is hardly the benchmark for on-time performance (OTP) by India’s airlines, private airlines too witnessed delays at Mumbai. This pulled down their overall on-time performance of each and every domestic airline since flights from the other big Indian airports did not face as many delays for any carrier.
Executives at some airlines blame severe congestion at the Mumbai airport for massive delays for and caution things may get worse in the upcoming winter schedule as runway upgradation work is slated around November. This means the runway would be closed for some length of time, worsening the situation.
A Mumbai International Airport spokesperson was unavailable for comments. But one airline executive said the airport has almost stopped awarding new slots and is only offering some for late night or red-eye flights and some airlines have had to resort to novel ways to enhance capacity with these constraints persisting.
At least one full service carrier is now using a wide body, twin aisle aircraft normally flown for medium haul routes on the Delhi-Mumbai leg to beat Mumbai airport constraints. The new proposed airport, at Navi Mumbai, could have solved Mumbai’s congested skies’ problem but is still years away from commencing operations. The bid itself has not been awarded for beginning construction of this much-awaited airport.
21/06/16 Sindhu Bhattacharya/First Post
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Executives at some airlines blame severe congestion at the Mumbai airport for massive delays for and caution things may get worse in the upcoming winter schedule as runway upgradation work is slated around November. This means the runway would be closed for some length of time, worsening the situation.
A Mumbai International Airport spokesperson was unavailable for comments. But one airline executive said the airport has almost stopped awarding new slots and is only offering some for late night or red-eye flights and some airlines have had to resort to novel ways to enhance capacity with these constraints persisting.
At least one full service carrier is now using a wide body, twin aisle aircraft normally flown for medium haul routes on the Delhi-Mumbai leg to beat Mumbai airport constraints. The new proposed airport, at Navi Mumbai, could have solved Mumbai’s congested skies’ problem but is still years away from commencing operations. The bid itself has not been awarded for beginning construction of this much-awaited airport.
21/06/16 Sindhu Bhattacharya/First Post
