About 230 flights are expected to be cancelled daily as Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) Mumbai, the second busiest airport in India will be partially closed for runway maintenance — re-carpeting the intersection of two runways. The two runways together handle a total of 85 flights per hour.
From February 7 to March 30, 2019, no flights will be operated between 11 am and 5 pm every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday — but the airport will function on March 21(Thursday) on account of Holi.
Following this announcement, the impacted flights have either been rescheduled or cancelled. International flights have been mostly rescheduled.
Additionally, the shutdown is expected to affect fares of key routes including Delhi, Goa and Bengaluru. Last minute fares could shoot up upwards of 30 per cent.
Meanwhile, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport Mumbai has become the first in the country to go digital with the scrapping of boarding pass stamping. The Digi-Yatra, a technology-driven initiative, introduced at T2 allows domestic travellers to authenticate their boarding pass at the pre-embarkation security checkpoint by scanning the boarding pass barcode or QR code on their mobile phones at the E-gate reader, using the live passenger dataset.
The digital initiative will fasten the checkin process leading to an enhanced travel experience for the passengers csia.in
Jessica Goel
