Airlines of India - Runway maintenance at BOM between 11 AM - noon every tuesday

... for the next 22 tuesdays.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Tuesday-blues-at-Mumbai-airport/articleshow/5166676.cms

MUMBAI: If you are catching a flight from Mumbai between 11am and 12noon on a Tuesday, be sure to arrive at least 75 minutes before the scheduled
departure time.

The airport will witness complete closure for six hours as the intersection between two cross-runways will be shut for the next 22 Tuesdays. This would not only mean that flight operations would be suspended during that time, but departing and arriving flights prior to the closure will have to stick strictly to schedule in order to avoid major delays or diversions to other airports.

(in other words, arrive early and go straight to the gate or the flight may even take off without you rather than hang around issuing "last call for Mr.X" for about 10 minutes after the scheduled takeoff time)

Thanks for that...I have some upcoming BOM visits, and funnily, around half of them are on Tuesdays!

But how does that work for intl flights that are supposed to arrive into BOM during that time?

This is going to one big mess and and anyone care to make a wager that it takes longer than 22 tuesdays !!

its not just tuesdays that get screwed, mondays are affected as well:

e.g at Kingfisher:

the tuesday bom-lhr flight leaves at 1030 but the normal schedule arrival is 1030 so the flight that leaves lhr-bom on monday has to leave an hour earlier to make it into BOM to turn it around before the curfew on Tuesday.

The SIN-BOM flight on tuesdays leaves at 0855 am instead of 1030am so that it arrives before the curfew and so on.

It can be a pain for a big airline to adjust schedules. Luckily the home carriers (AI, 9W, IT) widebody operations are minute that they can adjust easily.

Now imagine the nightmare BA or LH or AF or AA or UA would have faced if their respective airports decided to conduct upgrades in such a manner.

or if you want to look at it from a conspiracy angle...

...The Indians are pandering away to appease the airlines and airports from the west by operating full blast throughout the night when western airports are closed for scheduled maintenance and noise relief for local residents etc etc. God forbid if India disturbs the sleep of the west by imposing nightime curfews at BOM and forcing airlines to land in the middle of the night in the west. Shock, Horror, What would the EU say?

They could have used that time as scheduled maintenance and not have this tuesday maintenance curfew.

its not just tuesdays that get screwed, mondays are affected as well:

e.g at Kingfisher:

the tuesday bom-lhr flight leaves at 1030 but the normal schedule arrival is 1030 so the flight that leaves lhr-bom on monday has to leave an hour earlier to make it into BOM to turn it around before the curfew on Tuesday.

The SIN-BOM flight on tuesdays leaves at 0855 am instead of 1030am so that it arrives before the curfew and so on.

It can be a pain for a big airline to adjust schedules. Luckily the home carriers (AI, 9W, IT) widebody operations are minute that they can adjust easily.

Now imagine the nightmare BA or LH or AF or AA or UA would have faced if their respective airports decided to conduct upgrades in such a manner.

or if you want to look at it from a conspiracy angle...

...The Indians are pandering away to appease the airlines and airports from the west by operating full blast throughout the night when western airports are closed for scheduled maintenance and noise relief for local residents etc etc. God forbid if India disturbs the sleep of the west by imposing nightime curfews at BOM and forcing airlines to land in the middle of the night in the west. Shock, Horror, What would the EU say?

They could have used that time as scheduled maintenance and not have this tuesday maintenance curfew.

But I am sure the WEST airlines are paying a lot higher rate to land in BOM than the domestics. So, money talks, BS walks !!

Pandering, hell - most of the traffic from India connects to US flights - so the timings of Indian flights need to be adjusted to take that into account. Though I do wish India wouldnt be at the bottom of the pile every time for "upgraded product" (which usually comes with lower density configuration on the planes)