Mumbai airport commissions new taxiway to improve flight departure capacity

Mumbai, Dec 30 (PTI) Mumbai International Airport on Tuesday announced the commissioning of a new taxiway at its facility, aimed at significantly improving the flight departure capacity during peak periods.

The new parallel Taxiway M, commissioned on December 25, delivers operational benefits by enabling more efficient departure sequencing, allowing aircraft to move onto the runway and take off promptly, and allowing aircraft to queue on the taxiway while awaiting take-off clearance, Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) said.

This significantly improves departure capacity during peak periods while offering greater flexibility to air traffic controllers in managing airside traffic flows.

At the same time, the parallel taxiway also provides an alternate routing option during planned maintenance or unforeseen disruptions, enhancing overall operational resilience, it said.

This significant airside infrastructure upgrade has been designed to improve airside efficiency and operational resilience at one of the world's busiest single-runway airports.

CSMIA handles an average of 950-plus aircraft traffic movements, arrivals and departures daily.

Over time, sustained traffic levels and limited maintenance windows highlighted the need for an additional parallel taxiway to improve operational resilience and reduce dependency on a single taxi track, MIAL said.

It said that the new taxiway was conceived to address this critical requirement.

From an environmental standpoint, reduced taxi distances and shorter ground holding times contribute to lower fuel consumption and reduced carbon emissions, MIAL said, adding that with taxiway M now operational, Mumbai Airport is in a better position to manage current traffic volumes while creating headroom for future growth, ensuring smoother, safer and more reliable airport operations. PTI IAS MR