Centre issues directives to reduce airspace congestion at Mumbai airport, says "forced to act after MIAL didn't"

In a bid to address severe airspace congestion at Mumbai airport the central government has imposed flight restrictions caused by various factors including nonscheduled flight operations during peak hours reported news agency ANIThe Ministry of Civil Aviation revealed that despite the escalating air traffic postpandemic the Mumbai airport had failed to take sufficient measures reported ANIThe ministry said that the Mumbai airport operator did not take steps to streamline and regulate the air traffic movements to resolve this problem therefore forcing it to step in the matterThe airport operator being the slot provider as well as the manager of slots for the airlines should have proactively taken steps to streamline and regulate the air traffic movements to resolve this problem However since no such action was initiated by them the Ministry of Civil Aviation has had to step in it said reported ANIThe airport is operated by Mumbai International Airport Ltd MIALThe ministry said that the Mumbai airport suffers from congestion and excess capacity on its runways which inadvertently leads to air space congestion where flights are forced to hover over the city for a long duration of around 4060 minutes reported ANIThe ministry further said that considering that an aircraft on average consumes 2000 kg of fuel per hour such a long duration of circling time causes significant wastage of fuel for the aircrafts ranging from 17 kiloliters of jet fuel approximately costing around Rs 18 lakh for a 40minute circling time in air to around 25 Kilolitres of jet fuel approximately costing around Rs 26 lakhs for a 60minute circling time reported ANIIt is to be understood that such an increase in fuel costs would eventually be borne by the consumers This also has a cascading effect on the efficiency of airports operations leading to a longer wait time inordinate delays affecting both passengers and airlines adversely it said reported ANIIn order to remedy such air space congestion an analysis was conducted by Airport Authority of India AAI which found that air traffic permitted per hour during the 6 hours of High Intensity Runway Operations HIRO ie from 8 am to 11 am and 5 pm to 8 pm was almost equivalent to air traffic permitted per hour during the remaining 18 hours of the day reported ANIIn addition to the above slots general aviation and military aircraft operations were also allowed without any restrictionsBesides owing to presence of transverse runways operation of nonscheduled flights further increases air traffic congestion during peak hours it said reported ANIThe restrictions reduce air traffic movements from 46 to 44 per hour during HIRO periods and from 44 to 42 per hour during nonHIRO periods General aviation aircraft operations are also limited during HIRO periods The government expects Mumbai International Airport Limited MIAL to promptly ensure the cooperation of all airlines with these prescribed restrictionsThe causes of congestion were identified as excessive slot distribution with limited time margins nonadherence of slots by airlines and nonscheduled operations during peak hours While the airport is operating at full capacity the government emphasised that the airport operator should have proactively taken steps to regulate air traffic movements reported ANIWhile Mumbai Airport is running at its full capacity it was found that the persistent congestion was caused due to excessive slot distribution with limited time margins on behalf of the airport operator nonadherence of the slots on behalf of the airlines and nonscheduled operations during peak hours it said reported ANIIt further said that this action has been taken in the greater public interest from the perspective of airspace safety efficiency of operations and passenger satisfactionThe Government of India realises that it needs to step in to strike a balance between the needs of both airport operators and airlines while ensuring that passengers have a fulfilling experience while flying from Mumbai Airport the ministry said reported ANIWith inputs from ANI