Operating 837 flights a day, which roughly translates to one flight every 65 seconds, Mumbai's Chattrapati Shivaji International Airport has become the world's busiest single-runway airport. This surpasses the 757 flights a day record of London's Gatwick airport in the single-runway category.
The Mumbai airport also scores above Gatwick in terms of number of passengers served in fiscal year 2017 – handling 45.2 million as compared to the latter's 44 million. This number of Mumbai is 5.2 million more than its original capacity.
In comparison, the other most populous cities of the world like Delhi, New York and Singapore have multi-runway airports. The Delhi airport also plays host to more passengers than Mumbai, numbering at 57.7 million in FY17.
The Mumbai airport also distinguishes itself from others by having one-third of its land encroached upon by illegal squatters.
Burdened with enormous traffic, the financial capital’s airport has expansion works in the pipeline. Moreover, a new airport in Navi Mumbai is expected to be operational by 2019.
(With inputs from PTI)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)