Lessons for city airport from Gatwick

The Mumbai airport operator wants to use lessons learnt from Gatwick to improve the land-locked airport’s flight handling capacity. Last week, the Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) sent a proposal to the Airport Authority of India (AAI) seeking approval for the appointment of a consultant to increase the airport’s capacity.

The Mumbai airport operator wants to use lessons learnt from Gatwick to improve the land-locked airport’s flight handling capacity. Last week, the Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) sent a proposal to the Airport Authority of India (AAI) seeking approval for the appointment of a consultant to increase the airport’s capacity.

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The move came after a MIAL team returned from an observation tour of Gatwick airport in UK, which handles nearly double the traffic of Mumbai with just one runway. London’s second airport handles around 50 to 60 flights (take-offs and landings) every hour. Mumbai can manage a maximum of 30 operations despite having two runways.

“We have set Gatwick as a benchmark because the infrastructure and weather is similar to that of Mumbai,” said a MIAL spokesperson. MIAL is awaiting AAI’s nod on the proposal because they jointly run the airport. While the GVK-led private consortium is responsible for building and maintenance of ground infrastructure such as runways, taxiways the AAI handles air navigation.

The move is critical for Mumbai because the once busiest airport of country is losing out on traffic to other metro airports. The civil aviation ministry, for instance, has approved 630 slots to Delhi airport for domestic operations as compared to 490 at Mumbai.

One of the essential points raised in the proposal is the upgradation of air navigational technology. Airports aboard use advanced methods such the Air Flow Management System. This system gives a real time update of incoming and departing flights to air traffic controllers.

If the controller knows that an arriving fight will touchdown in six minutes he can access the time runway and give take-off clearance to another flight. It also enables the flying crew to gauge the congestion at the destination airport before taking off.