Closure of runway clips pilots' wings

Mumbai: The month-long closure of Mumbai airport's main runway will result in the wastage of 13,500 pilot hours. As planes wait for up to 45 minutes to take off and land, pilots lose flying time which is rationed to 1,000 hours a year. This is a wastage the aviation industry, which is short of pilots, can ill afford.
To carry out work on the rapid-exit taxiway and lighting, the main runway is closed from 10 am to 6 pm (from Oct 24 to Nov 24) and the lesser-equipped secondary runway handles operations. "A total of at least 45 minutes is spent waiting to land and take-off in Mumbai due to the runway closure and that's a conservative estimate," said a senior commander. On an average, the Mumbai airport handles about 300 landings and 300 take-offs in 24 hours, and most of these flights have two pilots per cockpit. By that account, the total loss of pilot manpower works out to 27,000 minutes or 450 hours in a day. As the runway closure is on for a month, that would be 13,500 hours.
17/11/06 Manju V/Times of India

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline