Runway ‘overlap’ delays shift to Juhu

Mumbai: The plan to de-congest Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) by shifting some small aircraft operations to Juhu airport by January 10 has not taken off as promised.
This because the Airports Authority of India (AAI) feels operations at the secondary runway at CSIA could interfere with Juhu operations.
The AAI also concluded at a meeting on January 6 that the Juhu airport infrastructure is not yet ready to accommodate additional movements.
Shifting small aircraft movements from CSIA to Juhu was planned to open up additional slots at CSIA for commercial flights. It would also reduce flight delays to an extent.
On December 10 last year, AAI succeeded in shifting all helicopter operations from CSIA to Juhu. Officials have not put a date on the small aircraft shift.
Currently, CSIA keeps the main runway 09-27 closed for renovation from 9 am to 5 pm and during this time, the secondary runway 14-32 is in use. As Juhu airport is open for operations only from 6 am to 6 pm, for at least eight hours air traffic controllers at CSIA would have a tough time maintaining radar separation for aircraft movement between the CSIA’s secondary runway 14-32 and Juhu airport’s 08-26, AAI officials said.
11/01/11 Ranjani Raghavan/Indian Express

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Categories: Airports Jan 2011