412 flights delayed at Mumbai airport on day 9 of landing upgradation work

Day nine of the Instrument Landing System (ILS) upgradation work at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) saw 412 flight delays.

While the average departing delay on Friday was over 50 minutes, arriving flights saw an average delay of around 25 minutes by night. Departing flights on Thursday recorded an average delay of 18 minutes and arriving flights saw a delay of five minutes.

However, two passengers who flew to the city on Friday said they were able to land before the expected time of arrival. ILS is a standard International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) precision landing aid that is used to provide guidance to aircraft to land on the runway under normal or adverse weather conditions. Neha Katdare, an Andheri resident who flew in from Chennai said her flight, which was expected to arrive at 3.35pm, landed three minutes before the scheduled time in Mumbai. “I was prepared for the delay as I have been reading about the same. However, to my surprise, I landed before time and was out of the airport within barely 20 minutes.”

A departing passenger to Bangalore who is a frequent flier said the delay faced by him was like any other day. The delay in flight operations however increased in the evening. An airport official said the main runway will be shut for three hours on Saturday afternoon for ground test of the upgradation work.

The ILS upgradation work began on May 17 and is scheduled to continue till June 5. However, airport officials are positive they will complete the work by June 2. The first two days of the upgradation work saw an average delay of around an hour or even more. Airport officials reduced the delay in flight operations by reducing the space between two aircraft from 6.5 mile to 6 mile.

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