Controllers Say Infrastructure Must Improve First

Controllers for Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (BOM) in Mumbai, India, are voicing opposition to a plan to reduce separation between inbound aircraft from the ICAO standard 5 NM gap to only 3 NM. Airport managers believe they can increase capacity and reduce delays with the change.

BOM was ranked worst airport for on-time arrivals in 2008 by Forbes.  The report cited FlightStats.com showing a full 50% of inbound flights were delayed and over half of those late arrivals were delayed by 30 minutes or more.  24.3 million passengers moved through BOM in the last year.

An unnamed controller told The Indian Express “nothing extra can be accommodated” until the airport’s infrastructure has been improved.  The runways are shut down for 6 hours weekly for maintenance and repairs while a taxiway is used to land some aircraft.

The paper reported that at least one senior BOM official did agree with ATC "...under the existing circumstances, a reduction in the separation gap between aircraft will only lead to more chaos on ground and increase passenger inconvenience."

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