Monday blues: 90% of flights departures from Mumbai delayed

MUMBAI: A majority of arrivals and departures at the Mumbai airport were delayed on Monday for a number of reasons, including a suspected bird hit which had the secondary runway shut down for inspection for about five minutes in the afternoon.
It was the first time after the eight-hour-a-day main runway closure regime began last week that the airport saw such major delays.According to a flight tracking app, about 90% of departures and 70% of arrivals were delayed.
Any flight that misses its scheduled time of departure/arrival by 15 minutes or more is deemed as a 'delayed' flight.
The suspected bird hit occurred during the main runway closure period, when the secondary runway was in use. Since the secondary runway can handle only a fewer number of flights per hour, the effect of the barely-five-minute suspension of flights was exaggerated.
An airport source said that flights were delayed by an average of 30 minutes. According to the schedule, the main runway was shut down for re-carpeting work around 9.30 am and flight operations were moved to the lesser efficient secondary runway and the flight delays began. However, air traffic congestion departure delays began early morning itself, much before the main runway closure. In the afternoon, air congestion went up after report of a suspected bird hit came in.
"A Vistara Goa-Mumbai aircraft reported a suspected bird hit around 3.30 pm. The aircraft landed safely and vacated the runway after which runway inspection was carried out. No bird carcass or foreign objects were found and the runway inspection was over in about six minutes," said a source.
But during this time, arrivals waiting to land had to hold. "It added to the air congestion and a number of flights were delayed," the source added.
The Vistara aircraft inspection too did not reveal any signs of a bird hit. A Vistara spokesperson said that no bird hit incident has been reported.
Throughout the day, hundreds of passengers ended up waiting at boarding gates or seated inside aircraft. "We have been waiting for passenger coach buses for over 30 minutes now," said an IndiGo passenger bound for Bengaluru, around 5 pm.
Among the worst hit was IndiGo 6E578 which was scheduled for a 12.10 pm departure, but finally left at 4.35 pm and landed in Varanasi at 6.52 pm. "The flight was rescheduled three times," said a passenger on board the Varanasi flight.
A flight tracking app said that about 70% of arrivals were delayed. It is the first time after the 8-hours-a-day main runway closure that began last week that the airport saw such major delays