Mumbai’s airport handles 1,003 flights in 24 hours, breaks own record

The Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) witnessed 1,003 flight operations in 24 hours on Tuesday, making it the only single-runway airport in India to handle so many take-offs and landings in a day. The airport also broke its own record of 988 flight movements in a day on May 19. Delhi airport, with three runways, is the only airport in India that handles more flights – around 1,250 – every day.

Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL), the city’s airport operator, said the number of flights handled rose owing to heavy and unexpected rainfall on Monday evening. “Aircraft were diverted to nearby airports as wind direction and thunderstorm restricted pilots. The diverted aircraft were accommodated after the rain stopped and most landed after midnight. This led to an increase in the flight movements on Tuesday,” said a MIAL official.

The Mumbai airport, which is country’s second busiest airport, catered to 4.85 crores passengers in 2017-18 as compared to 2.25 crores in 2006-07, translating into a growth of 6.5% every year. “It [the record] is a quintessence of operational excellence. The Mumbai airport is now in the league of the busiest single-runway airports around the world to have handled over 1,000 flights in a day,” said a MIAL official. “This is an acknowledgement of the airport’s continuous efforts towards setting quality benchmarks for the airport industry across the globe. It is a testament of GVK’s (airport owner) unflinching commitment towards operating with an approach that promises efficiency, safety and reliability.”

An Airports Authority of India (AAI) official, who manages the Air Traffic Control (ATC) at the city airport, said, “The airport operator (MIAL) considers data at 12am for a 24-hour timeframe, whereas ATC saves data from 5.30am. The reason for spike in number of flight movements from June 5 midnight is owing to the landing of additional flights post-midnight.” The Mumbai airport resumed normalcy on Sunday, after the Instrument Landing System (ILS) of its main runway was upgraded for giving better precision to pilots landing at CSIA. The work began on May 17 and ended on June 3.