E-Paper
Mumbai airport soars higher with more international and domestic fliers in 2017-18
Mumbai’s airport sees 50 international flights, 15 international freighter airlines and serves 47 international destinations. It has ten domestic airlines, one domestic freighter airline, serving 55 domestic destinations.
Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) airport got more domestic and international passengers in 2017-18, compared to 2016-17, the sustainability report released by Mumbai International Airport Pvt Ltd (MIAL) showed.
The airport saw 34.85 million passengers (17.38 million arriving and 17.47 million departing) domestic passengers in 2017-18, compared to 32.94 million (16.30 million arriving and 16.64 million departing) the previous year. In 2015-16, the number was 30.05 million (14.95 million arriving and 15.10 million departing).
In case of international passengers, the airport saw 13.46 million passengers (6.63 million arriving and 6.83 million departing) in 2017-18, a rise from 12.24 million passengers (5.92 million arriving and 6.32 million departing). The number stood at 11.91 million in 2015-16 (5.48 million arriving and 5.91 million departing).
The airport sees 50 international flights, 15 international freighter airlines and serves 47 international destinations. It has ten domestic airlines, one domestic freighter airline, serving 55 domestic destinations.
The area of the airport is constricted and only one runway can be used at a time. According to MIAL, the existing infrastructure – taxiway S7 and taxiway F – was modified to allow quick take-offs from runway 27 and thus reduce the delays. The runway also got a taxiway N1 R, which apart from delays, brought down greenhouse gas emissions and losses owing to fuel burning.
The report read, “Taxiway K1 is normally used as Code ‘C’ taxilane (by narrow body aircraft). We formulated a procedure wherein taxilane K1 shall be upgraded temporarily for taxiing by all types of aircraft (including wide body aircraft) whenever runway is changed to secondary runway 14/32 for prolonged duration.”
“A monthly meeting is conducted with the airlines and the air traffic control (ATC). During these meetings, the runway efficiency achieved is critically examined and ways of improving the efficiency and safety of operations in the future are deliberated upon,” said MIAL.
A system, Surface Awareness and Guidance at Airport (SAGA), has been developed to track the surface movement of flights and ground equipment at the airport for operational efficiency. This system at MIAL’s joint control centre at international terminal (T2) gives real-time update to departments namely apron control, aerodrome rescue and firefighting. While flights are tracked from 40 nautical miles and mapped on the grid map of the airport, an eye is kept on the ground movement of vehicles and equipment fitted with transponders.
The city airport, in collaboration with the Airports Authority of India (AAI), has also developed a Collaborative Decision Making (A-CDM) module for Air Traffic Flow Management.
