Airlines cancel flights to ease runway congestion 

Airlines (Commonwealth Union)_ Ministry of civil aviation, claims there was, “persistent congestion” at the Adani Group-run Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL)  owing to excessive slot distribution with limited time margins on behalf of the airport operator. Accordingly, non-adherence of the slots on behalf of the airlines as well as non-scheduled operations during peak hours. 

Various airlines have begun to cancel flights to and from the city following the Airports Authority of India’s (AAI) directive to the Mumbai airport to ease runway congestion.  Indian carriers are cancelling hundreds of flights till 30^th March, following the directive issued by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to the Mumbai airport to ease runway congestion. 

Also read : 

Finnair takes controversial step to assess ‘Flight Balance’ 

The statement added that the ministry had decided to step in due to lack of corrective action, noting that “MIAL should take immediate action to ensure that all airlines are on board with the prescribed restrictions.” 

The impact of the ministry’s statement was immediate, and beginning Wednesday several airlines cancelled operations. 

An Indigo spokesperson said that as per directives to ease congestion at Mumbai airport, there have been certain cancellations from 15^th February and affected passengers are being informed and provided with options to either avail a full refund, reschedule their flight or travel to an alternate sector. 

Akasa Air has cancelled flights between Mumbai and Bengaluru till 30^th March as part of the decongestion effort.  Flight operations of airlines to and from Mumbai are expected to be impacted with guidelines being applied to reduce runway congestion at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai. ‘Considering this impact, we have to rationalise our network resulting in cancellation of flights QP 1374 (Mumbai to Bengaluru) and QP 1362 (Bengaluru to Mumbai) between 15^th February and 30^th March,’ said an Akasa Air spokesperson.   On Tuesday, Akasa Air announced it was cancelling 90 Mumbai flights till the end of next month. 

Vistara has decided to cancel eight flights per day between 19^th and 30^th February, said sources. An Air India Express spokesperson said that they did not have much presence in Mumbai, while Air India did not respond to requests for comment on the matter. 

Earlier, on 2^nd January, the AAI had asked the MIAL to restrict air traffic movement from 46 to 44 per hour during high intensity runway operations and from 44 to 42 during non-high intensity runway operations. 

SpiceJet informed Business Standard that it has complied with the government’s directive, but did not specify the number of flights it was cancelling. 

A senior executive from a major Indian carrier told this newspaper that his airline was planning to cancel hundreds of flights, although the exact number was not finalised yet, since there were ongoing discussions with the Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL). 

The AAI, operating under the Ministry of Civil Aviation, has asked Adani Group-run MIAL to reduce flights due to runway congestion, which has resulted in a decline in airlines’ on-time performance. 

Mumbai airport handles approximately 910 flights per day, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium’s data. 

Akasa Air and SpiceJet operate about 54 flights and 34 flights per day, respectively, to and from the Mumbai airport, Cirium’s data showed. 

The bigger airlines such as IndiGo and Air India operate about 370 flights and 163 flights per day, respectively, to and from the Mumbai airport. 

MIAL, Air India, AIX Connect, Vistara and IndiGo did not respond to the newspaper’s requests for a statement on this matter. 

Akasa Air spokesperson said the airlines’ flight operations to and from Mumbai were expected to be impacted with guidelines being implemented to reduce runway congestion at the Mumbai airport. 

“Considering this impact, we have to rationalise our network resulting in the cancellation of flights QP 1374 (Mumbai to Bengaluru) & QP 1362 (Bengaluru to Mumbai) between February 15 to March 30, 2024,” the spokesperson added. 

The airline’s two cancelled flights are daily services. Akasa is consequently, cancelling 90 flights between 15^th February and 30^th March. 

They were proactively communicating to impacted passengers giving them options to either rebook at no additional fee or process a full refund. 

“Passengers can rebook on any date until April 15, 2024”. 

“Our Akasa Care Agents are proactively assisting passengers to minimise inconvenience and our airport services team is also geared to assist passengers on the ground as required,” an Akasa Air spokesperson added.