Mumbai airport operations to be hit every Tuesday

Passengers flying in and out of the Mumbai airport are likely to face a tough time on every Tuesday for the next five months as the intersection point of the two runways would remain closed for a few hours that day.

Over 100 flights to and from the airport would be affected as the area where the would be closed for six hours (1200 hrs to 1800 hrs) every Tuesday till March 2010, said a Mumbai airport spokesperson.

One runway is being upgraded and closed since October 1, 2009. On a normal day, the airport handles 630 flights.

"Because of the repair work at the intersection point, wide-body aircraft will not be able to operate on the runway which is operational. Narrow-body aircraft like Boeing 737, Airbus 320 and Airbus 319 can land and these are the aircraft domestic carriers use," said the airport spokesperson.

The spokesperson added that airlines were informed about this and had been asked to make changes in their winter schedule.

Private carrier Kingfisher Airlines issued a release, saying it has either made a timing change or a change in the flight number on account of this temporary closure on Tuesdays. These changes in timings range from an average of 15 minutes to 2 hours and will be applicable only on these days.

Jet Airways, the country's biggest private carrier, said there would be cancellations or merging of flights and that would be informed through its call centres.

The release added that four flights - Mumbai-Goa IT 131/Goa-Mumbai IT 132 and Mumbai-New Delhi IT 309 and New Delhi-Mumbai IT 310. On the international route, there has been a change in the timings of the flights operating on Mumbai-London Heathrow sector and the Mumbai-Singapore sector.