Flooding, low visibility stop operations at Juhu airport

MUMBAI: The Juhu aerodrome was shut on Monday after low visibility and flooding in the runway. The airport, which operates chartered flights and helicopter services, issued a notice to airmen (NOTAM) informing pilots of no operations till 3pm.

Though the airport tried to pump out the water from the runway, hoping to restart later in the day, all flight operations remained cancelled. An Airports Authority of India (AAI) official said that water had accumulated on the Juhu airport runway in the morning during high tide.

“As waterlogging was seen on the runway around 9am, all the seven water pumps were put into use. Though the water was pumped out by afternoon, poor visibility did not allow flight operations to resume for the day.”

However, private operators said that though the water on the runway receded by the afternoon, taxiways and other areas in the airside remained waterlogged. Airport officials said that Juhu aerodrome roughly operates around 100 flights in a day, out of which around 40 of them are helicopters that fly inland and to offshore oil fields for Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC). The Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) saw no flight diversions. However, Flightradar 24, a Swedish based internet service that shows realtime aircraft- flight information on a map, said nine flights to and from the airport were cancelled. The Mumbai International Airport Pvt. Ltd. (MIAL) spokesperson said that no flight had to be diverted or cancelled due to rains. Flightradar24 showed average delay time for departing flights was around 30 minutes, while that for arrival flights was five minutes. However, MIAL said there were no substantial delays.

JUHU AERODROME OPERATES 100 FLIGHTS IN A DAY, OF WHICH 40 ARE HELICOPTERS