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Flight cuts at Mumbai may double fares NEW DELHI: Passengers and airlines face a winter of discontent where flying in and out of Mumbai is concerned. With the main runway of the already constrained Mumbai airport to be closed for repairs for almost six months from the year-end, the number of flights will be slashed, and airlines have warned that fares could almost double as a consequence. Fares typically rise by up to 50% in the peak travel season, beginning September, despite airlines adding some capacity. Now with capacity at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) slated to drop, it would mean fares almost doubling on reduced capacity and higher demand, a CEO of a leading domestic airline, not wishing to be identified, told TOI. The cross runways of CSIA can handle up to 32 aircraft movements an hour. Once the main runway closes, this number will drop to 26 movements, which will mean reduction of capacity by well over 100 flights. As of now, airlines have not been told the exact period of runway closure. Everyone is selling tickets till next summer for flights in and out of Mumbai. But no one knows which of those flights will have to be axed or rescheduled, said the same CEO, while forecasting huge uncertainty for the winter schedule. With the main runway closing down, the entire burden would fall on the second runway in Mumbai. While a Mumbai-Ahmedabad one-way airfare ranges from Rs 3,500 to Rs 4,000, a similar one between Mumbai and Bangalore ranges from Rs 4,000 to Rs 7,000. A CSIA spokesperson said the main runway would be closed for almost six months to expand the airstrip to Code F standards, which means making it wide enough to handle mega commercial airliners like the A-380. The dates have not yet been finalized as the permission has to come from the DGCA. The renovation work is scheduled to begin around November, he said. Airlines warn that this closure will have a massive impact for flyers in and out of Mumbai. While the main runway at Delhi’s IGI airport is also closed for recarpeting since summer and will open in a couple of months, the national capital still has two active runways and air traffic is not that badly hit. Mumbai, however, will be a completely different story. The visibility of the secondary runway is 1,400 metres as opposed to 800 metres of the main runway. So, an aircraft will not be able to land there if visibility is even a little poor, a common occurrence in winter. Also the huge constraint at CSIA will mean that Mumbai will not be the alternate airport for planes flying to nearby places like Ahmedabad and Vadodara. Back |
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