Mumbai: Flights at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai, Friday saw a delay of more than 45 minutes as the airport is installing a new Instrument Landing System (ILS) to improve night landing at the airport. A Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) about the work being undertaken on ILS had been issued to the airlines on Thursday. On Friday, a Jaipur-bound Indigo flight 6E 998 from Mumbai was cancelled. “The ILS is not functioning from today onwards. It is receiving six additional elements from 14 elements for better signal quality,” an official from Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) said.
The official added, “It will be installed and post that approval from Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) will be taken. This entire process will take 20-25 days.”
“We were able to operate 45-46 flight services every hour on a normal basis. Flight operations were shifted to secondary runway from main runway between 9.53 am and 11.49 am due to heavy winds,” an MIAL official added.
Manheer Singh Sethi, co-founder of travel site Travkart, said, “Since Mumbai airport this morning issued a notice that ILS would not be available, it immensely impacted the already to-the-capacity airport to deal with the movements. More aircraft were stationed on the ground for up to 2 hours even after the aircraft door was closed. Business travellers were impacted the most as they have their flights booked as per the day planned.”
On Thursday night, four Indigo and one Go Air flights were diverted from Mumbai airport due to traffic congestion. Business professional Yogesh Agarwal, who was flying from Mumbai to Kolkata on Friday afternoon said, “Our flight remained in the runway for up to an hour. At least 20 flight services were hovering in the air waiting to land while 15 more flights crowded behind my flight waiting to take off. It was terrible.” Neha Mathews, another passenger who had to take a Delhi-bound Indigo flight from Mumbai, said, “I remained in the airport from 11 am to 3 pm as my flight was delayed by more than four hours. It was very chaotic. The airline offered no refreshments to us during our wait period.”
19/05/18 Indian Express
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The official added, “It will be installed and post that approval from Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) will be taken. This entire process will take 20-25 days.”
“We were able to operate 45-46 flight services every hour on a normal basis. Flight operations were shifted to secondary runway from main runway between 9.53 am and 11.49 am due to heavy winds,” an MIAL official added.
Manheer Singh Sethi, co-founder of travel site Travkart, said, “Since Mumbai airport this morning issued a notice that ILS would not be available, it immensely impacted the already to-the-capacity airport to deal with the movements. More aircraft were stationed on the ground for up to 2 hours even after the aircraft door was closed. Business travellers were impacted the most as they have their flights booked as per the day planned.”
On Thursday night, four Indigo and one Go Air flights were diverted from Mumbai airport due to traffic congestion. Business professional Yogesh Agarwal, who was flying from Mumbai to Kolkata on Friday afternoon said, “Our flight remained in the runway for up to an hour. At least 20 flight services were hovering in the air waiting to land while 15 more flights crowded behind my flight waiting to take off. It was terrible.” Neha Mathews, another passenger who had to take a Delhi-bound Indigo flight from Mumbai, said, “I remained in the airport from 11 am to 3 pm as my flight was delayed by more than four hours. It was very chaotic. The airline offered no refreshments to us during our wait period.”
19/05/18 Indian Express
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