Pending safety survey leads to delays

Mumbai: Even though the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) made 24-hour cross-runway operations at the Mumbai airport mandatory more than a year ago, the simultaneous use of both the runways has remained intermittent.
The safety assessment and survey required for such operations, which was supposed to be completed last year, had not been conducted, said an official. No wonder, that the two runways are functional together only for 14 hours or less, safety assessment being mandatory before starting any new operations. As a result, flight delays have become frequent, sometimes going up to three hours.
"Cross-runway operations were supposed to cut down on delays, particularly in the morning and evening. However, as the survey is yet to be conducted, the secondary runway is used between 5 am and 8 pm only,'' an official said. "The problem increases in monsoon when visibility is low and cross-runway operations cannot be conducted. Ever since the rains have set in, hardly any operations are conducted on the secondary runway.''
In June 2009, the DGCA sent a circular directing round-the-clock operations on both the intersecting runways at the airport. Even at that time, the order could not be implemented as the safety survey had been pending.
04/07/10 Chinmayi Shalya/Times of India

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Categories: Airports Jul 2010, Safety Jul 2010