Flight Delays Expected At The Mumbai Airport Till 5th June 2018!

If you are planning to fly to/from the Mumbai Airport before 5^th June, be prepared for your flight to get delayed.

Flights from the Chattrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai might be delayed due to the upgradation work on the airport’s Instrumental Landing System (ILS).

The old ILS is being upgraded, for which the work started on 17^th May and will continue till 5^th June. Because of this, the system will be out of service from 11 a.m. To 11 p.m.

Here’s why the ILS is so important –

• It is a ground-based navigational system which helps pilots to land. It gives guidance while landing and helps the pilots align the aircraft to the runway centreline.
• With no ILS on Mumbai airports main runway ‘27’, the pilot has to slow down the aircraft earlier than usual while landing it.
• Landing without the system’s guidance involves relying on the radar to look for the runway. This is known as “Non-Precision Approach”.
• At the Mumbai airport, a pilot cannot continue to land below 1070 feet if they don’t spot the runway. This increases the chances of “go-around” and the pilot has to make another attempt to land the aircraft.
• This can lead to air traffic congestion, as landing without the ILS takes more time.

On 18^th May, the airport saw severe air traffic congestion with almost 230 arrival and 350 departure flights getting delayed for 40 to 60 minutes.

This forced officials to shift operations to the secondary runway ‘14’, which is shorter than the main runway and can handle only a few flights.

Airport officials also fear that due to weather conditions the visibility might fall below 1200 meters and the airport might have to shut operations. They have been coordinating with the meteorological department to keep a track of the weather conditions. As of now, chances of poor visibility are less for the next 20 days.

Jet Airways and Vistara have informed their guests about the situation via Twitter and have asked them to check their flight status before leaving for the airport.

If you want to know whether your flight has been delayed at the Mumbai airport, look no further. Simply download the AirWhizz App to get real-time flight updates via push notification on your phone and Fly Stress-Free!