Oh God, it's Friday!

Not only does the airport see maximum passenger traffic, simultaneous runway maintenance work makes flight delays inevitable

Not only does the airport see maximum passenger traffic, simultaneous runway maintenance work makes flight delays inevitable

Being home to the country's busiest airport comes with a price frequent delays in flight. For the regular flyer this may be a common feature, but clearly Friday is the 'Bad Air Day'.

We're busy: Over 650 domestic flights fly in and out of Mumbai airport on a Friday, as passengers prefer to travel over the weekend.

With 623 domestic flights flying in and out every day, the Mumbai airport sees no respite. But with most bi-weekly flights being slotted for the weekend, considering passenger preference, this number goes up to about 650 on Friday and the situation gets pretty much out of control.u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0

"Normally, the flight load is maximum on Friday, Saturday and Monday while Tuesday is little lean,'' said Captain Vikram Yadav of the Indian Commercial Pilots Association.

But, the chaos cannot be attributed to passenger traffic alone. On Fridays, one runway of the international airport stays closed from 11.30 am to 1.45 pm for maintenance purposes and the secondary runway remains closed for 30 minutes from 1.15 pm. The runways, thus partially functional, are alternately operated during this period, in accordance with the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) norms. Hence, a massive backlog and congestion is the order of the day.

Bad days ahead
The worse is yet to come.u00a0 At present, work of re-carpeting the runways is going on at night.u00a0 "One runway is fully functional at night and the other is put to use only when the airport handles peak traffic," said a Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) official.

However, the intersection of the two runways (runways cross each other) undergoes maximum aircraft operations as it is always in use. Said aviation expert Vipul Saxena, "The resurfacing of this segment of the runway is a must, which the MIAL may carry out in winter since the domestic and international passenger traffic is low."

Resurfacing of the runway once every five years is essential, failing which the airport stands to lose its runway license issued by ICAO. MIAL plans to extensively carry out this maintenance work in October.

Complete shut down
G V Sanjay Reddy, managing director, MIAL, "We are working out permutations and combinations for resurfacing the runways, and are also in talks with airlines. We will then decide on when to shut down the airport completely."

Sources said the airport might have to be shut down completely once a week.