Much has been talked about the capacity in Indian aviation. First, it was all about overcapacity and post-suspension of Jet Airways on April 17, the conversation veered towards lack of capacity. In the melee for capacity addition, at the forefront was Mumbai – the most congested airport in the country.
For years, Mumbai could release only limited slots for air traffic. With no room for growth, encroachments, intersecting runways and harsh monsoon – there is little that the airport operator could do to increase the capacity. Along with Airports Authority of India (AAI), GVK, the operator of the Mumbai airport, reached peak levels of handling air traffic movements and became the busiest single runway airport in the world, with more than 1,000 movements in a day.
Against such a gloomy backdrop, it was obvious that airlines would clamour for slots at the airport the moment they were available after the collapse of Jet Airways. Data analysed by Network Thoughts for the last 13 months shows that the departures have been back at a faster rate than anybody would have anticipated.
The domestic airlines from India together recorded 9,167 departures at Mumbai in May 2019, just 10 percent short of what they recorded a year ago – when Jet Airways was in operation and the airline had one-third of all departures at Mumbai. This shows the magnitude of how slots have been lapped up by airlines.
Last May, AirAsia India did not have any departures to Mumbai and Air Deccan operated two departures a day. While AirAsia India started Mumbai operations in January 2019, Air Deccan stopped its flights to Mumbai in September 2018.
Adjusted to daily levels, to factor in the different number of days per month, Mumbai saw 307 movements a day by domestic airlines between May 2018 and April 2019. The same number stood at 296 in May 2019 — a difference of 11 movements per day, indicating that the capacity is almost back to where it was last year.
18/06/19 Ameya Joshi/CNBC TV18
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For years, Mumbai could release only limited slots for air traffic. With no room for growth, encroachments, intersecting runways and harsh monsoon – there is little that the airport operator could do to increase the capacity. Along with Airports Authority of India (AAI), GVK, the operator of the Mumbai airport, reached peak levels of handling air traffic movements and became the busiest single runway airport in the world, with more than 1,000 movements in a day.
Against such a gloomy backdrop, it was obvious that airlines would clamour for slots at the airport the moment they were available after the collapse of Jet Airways. Data analysed by Network Thoughts for the last 13 months shows that the departures have been back at a faster rate than anybody would have anticipated.
The domestic airlines from India together recorded 9,167 departures at Mumbai in May 2019, just 10 percent short of what they recorded a year ago – when Jet Airways was in operation and the airline had one-third of all departures at Mumbai. This shows the magnitude of how slots have been lapped up by airlines.
Last May, AirAsia India did not have any departures to Mumbai and Air Deccan operated two departures a day. While AirAsia India started Mumbai operations in January 2019, Air Deccan stopped its flights to Mumbai in September 2018.
Adjusted to daily levels, to factor in the different number of days per month, Mumbai saw 307 movements a day by domestic airlines between May 2018 and April 2019. The same number stood at 296 in May 2019 — a difference of 11 movements per day, indicating that the capacity is almost back to where it was last year.
18/06/19 Ameya Joshi/CNBC TV18
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