27 October,2009 07:22 AM IST | | Bipin Kumar Singh
Major airlines insist flights will run on schedule despite 6-hr airport shutdown today GROUNDED: Mumbai airport's Runway 1432 will be completely shut and the second partially from 12 pm to 6 pm on all Tuesdays till March to complete the ongoing reconstruction work.
For six hours beginning 12 pm today, the secondary Runway-1432 at the Mumbai airport will be completely shut and the main runway 0927 will be partially shut to complete ongoing reconstruction work.
Yet, major airlines like Air India, Jet Airways and Go Air claim their services will not be affected. In fact, Kingfisher is the only airline that admitted their flights would be rescheduled.
The reality, sources say, is different airlines do not want to acknowledge that flights may have to be cancelled today, as they fear passengers may want a refund on their tickets.
The company that runs the airport, Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) will continue to shut these runways on all Tuesdays till March.
Big problem
The Air Traffic Control (ATC), Mumbai, however, says that it will be extremely difficult to manoeuvre big airplanes like Boeings and Airbuses on the runway available for use and services will be affected.
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"The portion of the runway that will be open can only accommodate small ATR-type aircraft. Airbus and Boeing aircraft need more space. Flights involving big aircraft will have to be cancelled," said a senior ATC official
No cancellations
Airline companies, however, continued to maintain that their flights would run on schedule. "MIAL informed us of Tuesday's shutdown six months ago and so we have planned the flight schedule accordingly.
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There is absolutely no reason for cancellations," said Jitendra Bhargava, executive director, Air India.
Srirupa Sen, spokesperson, Jet Airways, and Carolina Bajaj of Go Air also confirmed that their flights would not be affected by the closure either.
Prakash Mirpuri, the official spokesperson of Kingfisher Airlines, however, said that Kingfisher had decided to cancel four of their 31 flights scheduled today.
"We have also rescheduled the arrival and departure timings of 27 flights by 15 minutes to two hours," added Mirpuri.
Mial'su00a0u00a0Announcement
Bryan Thompson, the director of operations, MIAL, announced at a press conference yesterday that the Mumbai airport would remain closed for six hours today to facilitate repairs on Runway 1432.
32
Average number of flights that use Runway 1432 in an hour
180
The number of flights that will be affected every Tuesday byu00a0 ongoing reconstruction work
March 2010
The month in which MIAL expects to complete reconstruction of Runway 1432
