Mumbai airport's main runway to be shut for three hours on Saturday

Afternoon and evening flights in and out of Mumbai may get affected.

Mumbai: If you are flying in or out of Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport on Saturday, it would be better to check your flight status before leaving.

Operations at the airport are likely to take a big hit as the main runway of the airport will remain shut for three hours between1400 and 1700 for work related to Instrument Landing System (ILS), reports news agency ANI. Mumbai airport actually has two runways but they intersect with each other, because of which the only one can be used at a time. The 12,008-foot runway was built to handle 46 take-offs and departures in one hour. But it has often witnessed more than 50 movements in an hour.

While the work is being undertaken on a Saturday as weekends see fewer passengers, airport officials still feel that schedules could be disrupted because Mumbai has one of the busiest airports in the world.

The runway was shut for a few hours for maintenance-related work last month as well.