In a bid to increase efficiency in operations and reduce delays, Mumbai international airport, one of the busiest in the country, is gearing up to raise the number of flight movements per hour. From October 1, 2011; the number of flight movements the airport can officially handle has been increased to 36 from 32. The airport intends to gradually increase this to 48 an hour in keeping with the recommendations made by NATS, a UK-based air navigation service agency.
Officials at the airport said that the maximum number of flights to be handled in an hour was increased after a series of meetings with Air Traffic Control (ATC),airlines and Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) officials. Both main runway and secondary runway will now be handling an increased number of flights. Officials said that the rule can be implemented properly only if arrivals and departures are slotted evenly.
The usual time gap between two arriving flights is almost 60 seconds whereas,the gap between departures in only 40-50 seconds. If more arriving flights are slotted in an hour,the target to conduct 36 movements may not be achieved, a senior airport official said. Also,the target will be tough to achieve on the secondary runway where the occupancy time for most flights is higher, officials added.