Mumbai airport more now caters to 4.85 crore passengers annually

Mumbai airport, the country's second busiest airport, catered to 4.85 crore passengers 2017-18 fiscal as compared to 2.25 crore fliers during the 2006-07 financial

Mumbai airport, the country's second busiest airport, catered to 4.85 crore passengers 2017-18 fiscal as compared to 2.25 crore fliers during the 2006-07 financial year. According to the airport operator, this translates into an annual growth of 6.5%.

Despite the space constraints, during winter and summer schedule, in 2017-18, the airport added five international flights and 10 domestic flights to its daily timetable. (HT FILE)

The airport handled 70.35 lakh international and almost 1.5 crore domestic fliers in 2006-07. The numbers have grown to about 1.4 crore international and 3.5 crore domestic passengers in 2017-18, reaching its maximum passenger handling capacity of 4.85 crore fliers.

With a flight movement in recorded every 50 seconds, the airport with cross runways — which means only one can be used at a time — faces constraints. The airport handles more 900 flights daily. While it initially saw one flight movement (departure or arrival) every 65 seconds, airport operator and Air Traffic Control (ATC) has brought down the runway occupancy time (ROT) by 15 seconds. The airport recently broke its own record in March, when it handled 988 flights in a day.

Despite the space constraints, during winter and summer schedule, in 2017-18, the airport added five international flights and 10 domestic flights to its daily timetable. These included flights to London, Amsterdam, Kuwait, Riyadh, Colombo at the international airport and Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Nanded, Vijaywada, Nashik, Jalgaon and Hubli at the domestic airport.

Looking at the packed schedule, ministry of civil aviation (MoCA) recently declared that no slot under regional connectivity scheme (UDAN) will be assigned to Mumbai until second airport at Navi Mumbai becomes operational.

The airport has made additional facilities available for passenger convenience, these include increased number of check-in counters (251 now 315+) and security check screening (57 now 98), increased number of immigration counters (78 now 140), airport hotel and lounges, self-bag tag printing (BTP) and self bag drop (SBD) facility to avoid the queues and reduce processing time. Apart from these, in order to maintain flight operations on time, the city airport has been enhancing parking bays and aerobridges. Mumbai airport has 207 parking bays which include 44 night parking bays.