Mumbai Airport to close for runways’ repair: Flights to be affected from Feb 7 to March 30

Mumbai, Jan 15: Operations of more than 900 domestic and international flights are likely to be affected as both runways of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai will be closed from February 7 to March 30 for repair and maintenance following, the runways will be non-operational for six hours.

During this period, the routes and timings of some international and domestic flights will be changed. The passengers of the canceled flights will be refunded during the period and, if possible, will be allowed to travel in another aircraft, Mumbai Airport spokespersons said.

From February 7 to March 30, both runways will be closed between 11 am and 5 pm on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. However, on March 21, 2019 (Thursday), an occasion of Holi, the runways will be operated.

Mumbai Airport is one of the busiest airports in the country, as on an average, there are 950 arrivals and departures per day. Although there are two runways here, they are either used to fly or run for one runway at a time as they intersect each other. With the 22-day long partial closure of runways, the administration has expressed their expectation that the airlines should use large body airplanes instead of narrow bodies (Wide Body), so that more passengers can be accomodated to travel.