On November 24, 2017, Mumbai International Airport handled 969 flights over a 24-hour period and set a new world record for single-runway operations. Moreover, the airport broke its own record of 935 flights, the Times of India informs.
The airport’s officials explained that the record was set because of a high number of the unscheduled flights, including charter and private operations, in the afternoon — during the airport’s non-peak period. These flights are banned during the morning and evening peak hours, so when their number goes up during a non-peak time, new records may be set. As the MIAL spokesperson told Hindustan Times, on the day when the record was set, the aim was to have 1,000 flights.
Mumbai has two runways, but they crisscross each other, so only one runway is used at a time. All flights use the main runway and only when this runway is unavailable, the second operates instead. As a result, Mumbai technically belongs to the single-runway airport category.
According to the Airport Authority of India, Mumbai Airport handles over 900 flights per day, 46 flights per hour. It handles approximately 45 million passengers per year and is expected to reach 48 million passengers by March 2018, Hindustan Times informs. As for now, this airport is busier than the UK’s Gatwick airport with 44 million passengers in 2016-2017.
Source – AeroTime
