Mumbai airport allows 5 delayed flights to land

Mumbai: The Mumbai air traffic control allowed five delayed city-bound flights to land at Mumbai airport violating the aviation regulators new rule that directed them to punish such errant flights. According to the rule that came into effect on Tuesday night two Kingfisher flights, IT 3156, IT 314,
Air India flight AI 131, Jetlite flight S2 380 and Goair flight G8 171, all scheduled to arrive in the city before 9:30 pm should have been either grounded at the their respective airports of origin or diverted to nearby airport such Ahmedabad and Pune.
But the Mumbai ATC made them to hover above the airport for about 25 minutes and allowed them to land.
M.G Jhunghare, general manager, air traffic control (ATC), western region, confirmed, “We have allowed three delayed flights to land.”
But airport sources told Hindustan Times that the ATC gave landing clearance to more flights that had missed their approved arrival slots.
Several flights were cancelled because of nationwide strike called by trade unions, as a result the violation of the rule on the first day of its implementation did not add to the congestion. Therefore most arriving flights touchdown on time.
08/09/10 Soubhik Mitra/Hindustan Times

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Categories: airports Sep 2010