Mumbai, February 3: Passengers flying in and out of Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA), Mumbai will now have to face delay in flight operations until February 17 due to maintenance work. The main runway of the Mumbai airport has been closed for operations between 10 am to 5 pm from February 1 to February 17 except on Wednesdays for the upgradation task.

As per reports, the decision to shut the runway for seven hours each day comes because of an urgent upgrade of navigational equipment at the Mumbai airport.  Due to this, operations on secondary runway are likely to impact all arrivals and departures in and out of the city. Airlines have, however, informed their customers about the development through social media.

The Mumbai airport has already crossed its installed capacity of 40 million passengers. Last year, it handled over 45 million passengers. It is the second busiest in India and has two crossing runways - 09/27 (the main) and 14/32 (the secondary runway). The primary runway can handle up to 48 arrivals and departures per hour while the secondary runway has a capacity of 35 movements per hour. Overall, there are 930 flight arrivals and departures at the Mumbai airport every day.

As per reports, airlines have been informed about the NOTAM- A Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) and have already re-scheduled operations in such a way that there are fewer cancellations. Following the notice, a statement from Jet Airways said, “Due to main runway unavailability at Mumbai airport between 10 am and 5 pm till February 17, our flights to and from Mumbai may get affected”.

According to a report by Indian Express, officials of the Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) said maintenance of Instrument Landing System (ILS) is being conducted. “We are conducting maintenance of the Instrument Landing System equipment. It is used to improve lighting at the airport during night hours. The work will take longer, hence, the block on the main runway,” a senior airport official said.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 03, 2018 07:54 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).