Mumbai loses busiest airport tag to Delhi

New Delhi: Mumbai, which has traditionally been India's busiest airport, has lost its coveted title to Delhi. While the airport's aircraft handling capacity has taken a severe hit due to the closing of two cross runways for recarpeting, Delhi is all set to add three more operational runways by October-end to its kitty.
The aviation ministry has finalised the winter schedule for this year which will see 3,475 daily domestic flights in India. Thanks to its enhanced capacity, IGI airport will see 630 flights operating daily. Mumbai is now way behind with the constrained airport being allowed just 490 daily flights. Indian carriers wanted to have 573 daily flights from Mumbai. But the unavailability of the two cross runways grounded their demand.
Post-slowdown, India has been recording double digit growth in domestic air travel. This buoyant demand is expected to shoot up in the peak winter travel season because of which airlines wanted to have 573 daily flights out of Mumbai. "The flights that have been allowed are much less. Fares anyway rise in peak season and coupled with low supply of airline seats, this could spell a double whammy for air travellers in and out of Mumbai in terms of fares," said an airline CEO.
25/09/10 Times of India

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Categories: airports Sep 2010