Why do wait times at Mumbai airport for aircraft to taxi and take off increase as the day progresses? TOI uncovers a complex set of reasons, going beyond messages of simple ATC delays and congestion one hears onboard delayed flights…
The net result
All these handicaps have come to bite, given the boom in air traffic. While Mumbai airport was handling 970-980 aircraft daily before the order to cut flights, there were days when it consistently saw 1,000 flights with a combined passenger load of 1.6 lakh…
The solution
Navi Mumbai International Airport is still over a year away from opening its first terminal, till which time CSMIA will remain the only aerial gateway to India’s financial capital. To handle traffic effectively, experts say there is an urgent need to: expedite automation; improve on-time performance of airlines, especially of arrivals from tier two and three cities; bring slots closer to actual capacity that factors in unforeseen but inevitable events like go-arounds or runway being shut down for a while to remove foreign objects; adherence to airport collaborative decision making; infrastructure upgrade by MIAL; more efficient use of airspace…