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Mumbai, Feb 4: Mumbai airport, busiest single runway airport in the world, set a new record after it handled 980 flights in 24 hours on January 20. The airport broke its previous record of handling 974 flights on December 6 previous year. Despite this record, United Kingdom’s Gatwick airport in London remains the most efficient airport in the world. It declared the capacity of handling 870 flights in a day. While the Mumbai airport works round the clock, Gatwick airport functions for only 19 hours after regulatory authorities imposed restrictions on flights post-midnight in 1971. [Also read: Mumbai Airport’s Main Runway to be Shut for 7 Hrs Till Feb 17]
However, many experts say the comparison between two airports cannot be justified. Mumbai airport is struggling with the acute shortage of space, London is served by four airports- Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and Luton. While Heathrow has two functional runways, Gatwick, Stansted and Luton operates with single runway.
“Mumbai airport functions in a space-starved, infrastructure-constrained environment, unlike any other. More flights can’t be added onto Mumbai’s single runway without a holistic approach that takes into account the ground realities, India’s regulatory framework, human factors etc,” The Times of India quoted airport’s spokesperson as saying.
He added that the shortage of space is felt most when airport struggle with any emergency. In a similar situation, many flights were sent to Bengaluru and Hyderabad after Spice Jet aircraft overshot the main runway forcing its closure. “Last September, when a Spice Jet aircraft overshot the main runway forcing its closure, most of the wide-bodied aircraft operating long haul international flights were forced to divert to Hyderabad and Bangalore, where a dearth of aircraft parking bays posed a problem,” he added.
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