The international airport in the Indian city of Mumbai has set a new world record for the number of takeoffs and landings in 24 hours, The Times of India reports.
The record was set on Friday, November 24, when the airport saw 969 takeoffs and landings in one day. Thus, the previous record of 935 flights, also set by the airport in Mumbai, was broken.
Although the airport has two runways, it is technically a single-runway airport. The runways cross each other, making it impossible to use them simultaneously. This puts the Indian airport in the same league as secondary airports such as London Gatwick and Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen. At the same time, London Harbour is the only one in the world with one runway, handling more than 50 aircraft per hour.
According to statistics, the Indian airport handles about 900 flights per day. The record number of departures and arrivals occurs on days when many charters are planned.
According to a senior air traffic controller, the right combination of aircraft and weather conditions allows 10 takeoffs or landings to be handled in 10 minutes. That is, the record is only possible when wind speed and visibility are good, all aircraft involved are Airbus A320s, Boeing 737s or similar in speed and weight, and all are flown by pilots who are well versed in the layout of Mumbai airport.
Representatives of the airport are confident that in the near future they will be able to set a new record – 1,000 aircraft per day.
Source: news.turizm.ru