Mumbai airport resumes main runway operations

Mumbai:  Aircraft movements at the main runway of the Mumbai airport was restored last night after the airport operator removed the SpiceJet aircraft which had skidded after landing amid heavy rains on Tuesday.

The operations at runway 09/27 resumed at around 11:30pm after SpiceJet Boeing 737 was moved to the paved area and subsequently to a hanger, a Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) official said.

In an exercise, which lasted for almost 24 hours, undertaken by the joint engineering team of national carrier Air India and the MIAL, the aircraft was removed from the runway at around 9:30 last night.

Nearly 180 flights were cancelled during the main runway closure period, which lasted for over 25 hours. Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha had earlier tweeted, “#AI team assisting #RescueOperation in removal of #SpiceJet acft from #BOM runway, the only airline in India to offer this type of facility.” 

Mumbai airport, the second busiest in India, has two crossing runways – 09/27 (the main)and 14/32 (the secondary runway). While the primary runway can handle up to 48 arrivals and departures per hour, the secondary runway has a capacity of 35 movements per hour. Overall, there are 930 flight arrivals and departures at the Mumbai airport every day.