Daijiworld Media Network - Mumbai (SR)

Mumbai, Nov 4: The main runway of Mumbai airport will be closed for re-carpeting from Monday for about five months, till March 28, 2020. The secondary runway will be active during the closure period. To put up with the closure, the authorities have decided to cancel 26 flights per day from all airlines, said the sources.

Sunday bookings for evening flights between Delhi and Mumbai have increased due to the closure. The main runway, 09/27 will remain open throughout Sundays and public holidays, including December 25, January 15, February 19 and 21, and March 10 and 25, informed the authorities.

“Re-carpeting will enhance the runway’s life by 7 years. Runway 09/27 is prone to heavy wear and tear because it is in use most of the time,” said a source, as quoted by TOI.

The airport, which handles an average of 940 arrivals and departures a day, has a set of cross runways. Thus, unlike airports at Delhi, Hyderabad and Bengaluru, which have parallel runways, with both operational simultaneously, in Mumbai, only one runway works at a time. Earlier, major work on the main runway was done in 2009-10.

Runway 09/27 handles 46 flights per hour, as compared to 36 on the secondary one. Also runway 09/27 better equipped with rapid-exit taxiways, making aircraft vacate the runway faster after landing than on the secondary runway. “The airport team had meetings with air traffic control (ATC) about minimising the effect of the runway closure. ATC will try to accommodate more than 36 flights per hour on the secondary runway,” said a source as quoted by TOI.