MUMBAI FIGHTS AIRSPACE CONGESTION BY LIMITING FLIGHTS

Industry experts say limiting number of flights may increase average fares.

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Mumbai, the country’s financial capital, is facing acute congestion in its airspace due to heavy load of domestic airlines as well as private jets of the corporate world’s big shots.

So alarming is the choking of the Maximum City’s airport runway that the Ministry of Civil Aviation has had to step in and ask airlines to reduce their flight operations as the current situation is forcing planes to hover over the city for durations as long as 40-60 minutes.

“Considering that an aircraft on an average consumes 2,000 kg of fuel per hour, such long duration circling time causes significant wastage of fuel for aircraft ranging from 1.7 kilolitres of jet fuel (approx. cost, around Rs 1.8 lakh) for a 40-minute circling time in air, to around 2.5 kilolitres of jet fuel (approx. cost, around Rs 2.6 lakh) for a 60-minute circling time,” said the Ministry’s advisory which saw about 20 flights being cut by domestic airlines on Thursday.