TRAVEL ALERT: Mumbai Airport To Remain Shut For 6 Hours Today!
Are you flying in and out of Mumbai today (Tuesday, 23rd October 2018)?
If yes, then brace yourself for flight delays as both the main and the secondary runways of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport will remain shut for operations for six hours, i.e. from 11 am to 5 pm, for repair and maintenance work.
The runways of the Mumbai airport will undergo maintenance and repair in two phases between October and February-March period.
During the shutdown period, around 300 flights will be affected per day. Flights which are scheduled to either take off or arrive between 5 pm and 8 pm are likely to be the worst hit.
National carrier, Air India tweeted about this situation asking passengers to visit the website/app and to contact the call center for details on rescheduled and cancelled flights.
Budget airline, GoAir, also tweeted about the same. The flights of other carriers are also expected to be hit in a big way.
On 4Th October, Mumbai International Airport Limited(MIAL) had released a statement saying that due to the maintenance work, both the runways 09/27 and 14/32 will remain shut for operations between 11 am and 5 pm on October 23.
They have also said that in the second phase, the maintenance and repair work on the intersection will be carried out between February 7 and March 30 (except on March 21) from 11 am to 5 pm on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
The primary runway of the airport has a capacity of 50 flight movements an hour against the declared capacity of 46, while the secondary one runway can handle up to 35 arrivals and departures in an hour. On an average, the airport handles around 1,000 flights a day.