Airlines play safe, Tuesday flight operations dip 35%

Flight operations at the Mumbai airport saw a dip this Tuesday as wary airlines rescheduled or cancelled their afternoon flights to avert trouble on the shortened runway. Only 58 flight arrivals and departures were reported between 1pm and 5pm on runway 27A, a 35% decline compared to the last three Tuesdays.

Flight operations on Tuesdays have become unsafe at the airport as aircraft have to land on a curtailed 1,703-metre runway due to repair work. Four near-fatal accidents took place on the stretch on November 3 and November 10.

On the last three Tuesdays, around 73 to 84 flights operated during short runway operations. “This is almost a decline of 35%,” said an airport official.

Fear of mishaps playing on the mind, the Mumbai Air Traffic Control (ATC) diverted Delhi-Mumbai JetLite flight S2 107 to Ahmedabad as the captain was not a trainer pilot as prescribed by the director general of civil aviation (DGCA).

“Before the final approach, the captain told us that he was not trained for short runway operations and wanted to divert the flight to Ahmedabad,” said an ATC official. The flight later reached Mumbai at 6.45pm.

“As per the DGCA regulations, only a trainer pilot can land on a shortened runway,” said a Jet Airways spokesperson.

Asked why a trainer pilot was not rostered at Delhi, she said, “By the time he had to approach Mumbai, it ran into the short runway operations … matter of time.”  DNA found that the scheduled time of arrival of the flight at Mumbai was 1pm, when the short runway operations begin.

GoAir did not operate any flight between 1pm and 5pm while Air India, which operates one flight (IC 164 Goa-Mumbai) that reaches here at 3.45pm, postponed it to 6pm.

Kingfisher, whose aircraft had skidded last Tuesday, did not cancel or reschedule any of its afternoon flights.

The runway operations, however, were suspended from 2.51pm to 3.38pm as the visibility dived to 2,500 metres from the permissible 2,800 metres. “The visibility was okay but the ATC and the airport operator were being cautious,” said the commander on an ATR flight.

From October 27, on every Tuesday, from 12noon to 6pm, the intersection point of cross runways 09-27 and 14:32 is closed for repair work. At this time, 1,703 metres of the runway 09:27 (3,500 metres) has been made operational as short runway 27A. Smaller aircraft like ATRs, Airbus 319 and Airbus 320 operate on this runway.