With only a gap of 65 seconds, a plane either lands or takes off from Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji airport, which brought it to the top position among the busiest airports in the world with a single runway. The feat is quite an achievement for Mumbai air traffic control and airport operator.
According to a report in the Times of India, the airport official said, “Currently, Mumbai airport handles 837 arrivals or take-offs in a day — an average of 80 flights more than Gatwick, which handles 757 movements in a day.”
All passenger and cargo aircraft operate from a single runway — either the main runway (0927) or, when it’s shut for repairs, the secondary one (1432). Handling these many flights is quite a task and the work gets even difficult when the airport has to use the other runway. Earlier, this year the second runway was used from 9 am to 5 pm as the main runway was undergoing maintenance.
Till recently, Gatwick airport in London was the busiest airport with one runway in the world. Some of the other busiest airports with single runways are Stansted (London), Yiamen (China), Fukuoka (Japan). However, Mumbai airport’s entry into the list of airports with the single runway is quite accidental as it has two runways but only one can be used at a given time.
An air traffic controller said, “Because of land constraints, Mumbai airport cannot have a parallel runway and simultaneous use of its cross runways is too complicated, which leaves the lone runway to handle all air traffic”.
