In Planes vs Pothole, Pothole Wins: Mumbai Airport Delays Flights

This is the second time in less than a month that the Mumbai International Airport had to shut its main runway.

A file photo of an Air India aircraft outside the domestic departure terminal of the Mumbai airport. Image used for representational purposes.

(Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Heavy rains affected the flight operations at the Mumbai airport on Monday, the second time in less than a month, causing delays.

According to sources, rains had led to a pothole on one of the taxiways, forcing the airport authorities to shut the main runway and resulting in delays in aircraft movement.

This was the second time in less than a month that the Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL), the GVK-led joint venture airport company, had to shut the main runway, 009/27, for operations.

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The runway remained out of use for over three hours this morning following which the operations were shifted to the capacity-constrained secondary runway –14/32.

A source said:

As a result, both arrivals and departures were affected with the incoming flights reporting an average delay of two hours, while departures getting delayed by almost an hour till the afternoon.

However, a spokesperson of the MIAL said the runway closure resulted in a delay of "half an hour".

Confirming the development of the pothole on a taxiway due to rains, the spokesperson said the main runway was shut for operations at 6 am and the services could be resumed only at 10 am after the problem was fixed.

The traffic at the main runway was finally restored at 10 am.