Congestion: Ministry of Civil Aviation Asks Mumbai Airport to Reduce Number of Flights

The Aviation Ministry in a late-night order stated that Mumbai Airport, is one of the busiest in the country but has a lot of congestion that forces flights to hover over the city for a prolonged period, reports ETV Bharat's Saurabh Sharma

New Delhi:The Ministry of Civil Aviation on Wednesday asked Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) to reduce the number of flights as it "suffers from congestion and excess capacity on its runways".

In a late night order by the Aviation Ministry, the order stated that "Mumbai Airport, being one of the busiest airports in the country, suffers from congestion and excess capacity on its runways, which inadvertently leads to air space congestion, whereby flights are forced to hover over the city for a long duration of around 40-60 minutes."

It added that this hovering of aircrafts leads to significant wastage of fuel amounting to Rs 1.8-2.6 lakhs which "would eventually be borne by the consumers."

Air Authority of India which provides air navigation services conducted an analysis to tackle the air space congestion in Mumbai. According to this, it found that "air traffic permitted per hour during the six hours of ‘high intensity runway operations’ (HIRO) from 8-11 am and 5-8 pm was almost equal to air traffic permitted per hour during the remaining 18 hours of the day. In addition, general aviation (charters) and military aircraft operations were also allowed without any restrictions. Besides, owing to presence of transverse (cross) runways, operation of non-scheduled flights further increases air traffic congestion during peak hours."

While Mumbai Airport is running at its full capacity, it was found that the persistent congestion was caused due to- "excessive slot distribution with limited time margins by the airport operator, non-adherence of slots by airlines and non-scheduled operations during peak hours."

The order blamed the 'airport operator' for its mismanagement causing congestion, it said that "The Airport Operator being the slot provider as well as the manager of slots to the airlines, should have proactively taken steps to streamline and regulate the air traffic movements, to resolve this problem."

The Airport Authority of India has issued directives to the airport operator in the form of Notice to Air Men (NOTAMs) on January 2, 2024, which restricted the air traffic movements (ATM) during HIRO (i.e. from 8- 1100 AM, 5 - 8 PM & 9.15-11.15 PM )period from 46 to 44 per hour and in non-HIRO period from 44 to 42 period.

"Further General aviation aircraft operations during HIRO period have also been restricted. It is expected that MIAL should take immediate action to ensure that all airlines are on board with the prescribed restrictions", the order further read.

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