Why your next trip to Mumbai airport may soon be a breeze

Operations at Mumbai airport, the country's second-busiest airport, are expected to be more efficient in the coming months. The airport operator has rolled out a web application to track real-time data on various activities at the aviation hub. Officials said the app – surface awareness and guidance at airport (SAGA) – will help the Mumbai International Airport Limited identify causes for delay of flights and take corrective action, ultimately benefiting flyers. This is a first-of-its-kind initiative in an Indian airport, said officials.

"We are trying to streamline Mumbai airports' operations considering the airport is going to be under pressure until the Navi Mumbai airport is ready. SAGA will help us avoid delays and ensure smooth functioning that will likely reduce travel time for passengers." The application was under testing since November 2017, and is now fully operational and will be instrumental in live traffic analysis on the runway, which will help establish possible causes of delay. The Mumbai Airport sees a take-off or landing every 55 seconds.

"The application will be instrumental in monitoring airline on-time performance data, such as slot adherence, taxi and waiting time and runway occupancy time," said MIAL in a statement.

Further, the application will also help with operational alert to the control room of Mumbai airport whenever excessive waiting time is detected in any airport segment, be it on the runway, taxiway or apron.

The application enables information-sharing among different centres on the operational axis, such as the joint control centre, the apron control, airside management office, followed by airport operations services back office and the corporate offices at Mumbai airport, along with the aero-marketing department.

The MIAL statement further said, "Aircraft moving on the airport surface, or airborne during approach or take-off, as well as ground vehicles can all now be visually tracked using a single unified interface." It added: "Aircraft and ground vehicle position and movement information such as the time of entry, exit, and average speed of motion, will be collected using the system's independent Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast (ADS-B) and Multilateration (MLAT) sensors."

The Mumbai airport has already crossed its installed capacity of 40 million passengers. It recently handled over 48 million passengers in a year.

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Meanwhile, Mumbai airport was also rated as the World's Best Airport for Airport Service Quality (ASQ) Awards, 2017, for customer experience announced by the Airport Council International (ACI).

Source: DNA India