Mumbai Runway Closure led to Flight Cancellations: IndiGo

The country's largest domestic airline, IndiGo, on Thursday said the airline has been forced to make a substantial number of cancellations and diversions of its flights to and from Mumbai airport due to closure of the main runway since 1 July.

"As aircraft and crew rotations go through the whole country, there was a ripple effect throughout the system which caused delays not only in Mumbai but also in other parts of the country and also affected some international flights," the airline said in a statement.

"The effect was that aircraft had to be diverted to different places due to the ongoing Mumbai main runway closure and needed to be recovered to put it in the right rotational sequence. This has led to a situation where flight duty time of the operating crew becomes a limiting factor. Flight duty times are a mandatory requirement with zero tolerance which IndiGo is adhering to," it added.

On the night of 1 July, a SpiceJet aircraft flying on Jaipur-Mumbai route skidded off the main runway during landing, causing airport authorities to close down the runway, causing a partial shutdown of the country's second busiest airport, and use the secondary runway for all operations.

The SpiceJet aircraft, carrying 167 passengers on board, overshot the runway after landing amid heavy rains, leaving the plane stuck partially between the main runway and the adjacent grass area. The aircraft remained stuck in the runway as of Thursday afternoon.

A source with direct knowledge of the matter, requesting anonymity, said the main runway was likely to be operational only by Thursday-midnight or after.

The main runway at Mumbai airport handles up to 48 flights an hour while the secondary runway handles up to 35 flights an hour.

Due to the unavailability of the main runway, all flight operations are being conducted from the secondary runway, which has resulted in massive flight cancellations and delays.

During 3-4 July, close to 300 flights were cancelled and diverted from the airport, said the person mentioned above.

On 2 July, India's aviation regulators, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) issued safety directions to airlines in the wake of multiple incidents of planes overshooting runways at various airports, including Mumbai, while operating amidst bad weather conditions.

The regulator said airlines must "make available sufficiently experienced crew in the cockpit", adding that the crew rostering should factor in the "fatigue element associated with operations during adverse weather conditions."

Issuing various directions to the airlines, the DGCA in its circular said ‘the crew should be well aware of the aircraft limitations and of take-off/landing performance calculations during adverse weather operations."

It also said while adhering to minimum cockpit experience, which has already been laid down by the DGCA, airlines should carry out their own "risk assessment" before conducting operations during adverse weather conditions.

Meanwhile, heavy rainfall and subsequent mishaps at Mumbai airport have hit close to 400 flights during 2-3 July due to disruption in flight schedules, said Aloke Bajpai, chief executive and co-founder of online travel portal ixigo.

“Cancellation of flights has also triggered a rise in last-minute average fares by 35-40% on key routes to and from Mumbai. With disruptions expected to continue in the coming days, we have seen a 22% increase in passengers, rescheduling their Mumbai-bound flights to next week," Bajpai added.

(Press Trust of India contributed to this story)

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