Mumbai, May 23:  The flights at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA), Mumbai have got delayed for the sixth consecutive day today. The reason behind the delay is said to be the ongoing repair and up-gradation work of the instrument landing system (ILS), which will help to improve the aircraft landing on the runway more accurately. The repair work which started on May 17  is expected to be continued till June 5. According to a Hindustan Times news report, around 285 flights were delayed by almost 25 minutes on Tuesday.

The ILS is a standard International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) precision landing tool that is used to guide aircraft to land on the runway under normal or adverse weather conditions. The report referred to Flightradar24, a Swedish internet-based service that shows real-time aircraft flight information on a map which says that the departing flights were delayed by 30 minutes on Tuesday, arriving flights faced a delay of five minutes. The map also showed that around 8.30 pm, 94 percent of departing flights and 62 percent of the arriving flights were delayed. Flightradar24 showed the cumulative delays in arrivals and departures increased towards the Tuesday evening.

The Mumbai international airport's main runway on Monday was shut from 9.18 pm to 9.40 pm because an Air India flight AI 662 that took off around 7.50pm for Goa made an emergency landing earlier. Mumbai International Airport Pvt. Ltd. (MIAL) spokesperson made a statement: “Except SpiceJet flight SG 169 coming to Mumbai from Guwahati via Delhi that was diverted to Ahmedabad, no flights had to be diverted or cancelled throughout the day.”

Several passengers suffered due to the flight delay. Therefore, many suggested that if such planned maintenance works are to be carried out then alert messages should be sent to passengers to avoid inconvenience, to which an airline official said that they are sending out messages and emails to their guests informing them about the delays. Meanwhile, the portals showed that the most affected routes were Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad. Mumbai-Delhi sector alone sees around 150 flight movements a day, as reported.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 23, 2018 03:55 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).