If you plan to travel anywhere by air from the Mumbai airport in the next two weeks, you may have to face inconvenience as the flights could be delayed. The main runway will be shut from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm every day till February 14 to upgrade a component in the instrument landing system (ILS), which will help to guide the aircraft to the center of the runway.
The work started on Thursday. Flight operations were taking place from the secondary runway 14/32 which is shorter than the main runway. Flights will be delayed because Aircrafts using the shorter runway take more time to take-off and land. As the runways intercept each other and are not parallel, only one runway is functional at a time.
A Mumbai Airport International Pvt. Ltd. (MIAL) spokesperson confirmed the development. According to senior airport officials, the upgradation of the component called ‘localiser’ will help the aircraft to align with the center of the runway even at a distance of 50km. Officials confirmed that the main runway will be operational on Wednesdays as the secondary runway will be closed for routine weekly maintenance work.
According to a senior Airports Authority of India (AAI) official, the upgradation of the component will help in the precision landing of aircraft, which means that it will help in their safer landing.
Several airlines took to Twitter to inform the passengers about flight delays to and fro from the city airport after witnessing delays on Thursday. An official claimed that backlogs are expected to result in further flight delays even after the main gate becomes functional post 5:00 pm.
Here’s what Jet Airways tweeted:
#9Wupdate: Due to main runway unavailability at #MumbaiAirport between 1000 and 1700 hrs till 17th Feb (except 7 & 14 Feb), our flights to & from Mumbai may get affected. Guests are advised to check flight status: https://t.co/aT3wpYWW9R
— Jet Airways (@jetairways) February 1, 2018
Indigo too alerted their passengers to check their flight status before leaving for the airport.
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