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Mumbai airport to remain closed every Tuesday
Mumbai, Oct 27, (PTI):
Passengers flying in and out of Mumbai airport on Tuesdays are likely to face a tough time for next five months as the runway would remain closed for a few hours that day. "The runway will be closed for reconstruction work between 1200 hrs to 1800 hrs on Tuesdays till March 31, 2010," Mumbai International Airport Limited Director( Operations), Bryan Thomson told reporters on Monday.
Around 100 odd flights, both domestic and international, are likely to get affected due to the construction work. However, the short runway will remain functional for smaller aircrafts, he said. The airport is undergoing the runway reconstruction work to improve the flight movement. The runway was earlier closed in 2003 due to similar work. The cross runway is already shut on account of repair work and would be functional only in February, Thomson said.
MIAL has received the mandatory approvals from the Director General of Civil aviation and airport authority of India to undertake the work, Thomson said. "We have taken the airlines into confidence and advised them to plan their schedules accordingly," he said. Mumbai airport handles 630 flights per day.
Meanwhile, Jet Airways, in a statement, said due to closure of the runway on Tuesdays between 12.00-13.00 hrs and 17.00-18.00 hrs and restricted closure of the runway on the same day between 13.00-17.00 hrs, it would reschedule its flights. During the restricted time, only Boeing 737-700, ATR-72-500 and CRJ aircraft can operate, it said. "Jet Airways and JetLite, in their 2009 winter schedules, will re-route and deploy aircraft to and from Mumbai and re-schedule existing flights to minimise resulting flight cancellations," Jet said.
Kingfisher Airlines has also changed time or flight numbers on the domestic and international routes. "On 31 flights operating out of and into Mumbai, we have made either a timing change or a flight number change on account of this Tuesday closure," Kingfisher said in a statement here. These changes range from an average of 15 minutes to 2 hours and will be applicable only on Tuesdays, it said. The airline has cancelled a total of 4 flights on Tuesdays -- Mumbai-Goa IT 131, Goa-Mumbai IT 132, Mumbai- New Delhi IT 309 and New Delhi-Mumbai IT 310. On Kingfisher's international route network, there has been a change in the timings of flights on the Mumbai-London Heathrow and Mumbai-Singapore sectors, it said.
Passengers flying in and out of Mumbai airport on Tuesdays are likely to face a tough time for next five months as the runway would remain closed for a few hours that day.
