CHENNAI: Capacity constraints seem to be limiting the number of departures from Chennai airport during morning peak hour. The airport has the least number of peak hour departures compared to airports in other metros.Chennai handles 48 departures between 5am and 9am every day while Bengaluru handles 68, Hyderabad 60, Mumbai 93, and Delhi 150. Kolkata handles the same number as Chennai. The airport handles around equal number of arrivals also. Majority of the flights are domestic flights.Though the numbers are lower than other major airports, Chennai struggles with congestion during morning peak hour because of highest number of departures slotted back to back and is not able to handle more planes because of absence of space in the terminals, good taxiways, parking stands near terminal buildings and baggage handling space. Airlines prefer morning departures on domestic routes because several passengers prefer to leave on a morning flight and reach their destinations on time for business meetings and return the same day. However, the airport is not able to offer new slots. This has encouraged airlines to introduce more red eye flights, most of which are concentrated between 3.30am to 5am.AAI is now trying to encourage airlines to scatter departures because there are time slots when there is hardly any aircraft movement. There is a plan to charge a congestion fee on airlines. Peak hour for Chennai is between 5am and 9am, of which the maximum departures happen between 5am and 7am. Then there is a number of flights at 10am, 2.30pm, 5pm and then 9pm. “The number of flights is low from 10am to 2pm. A few of the flights can be operated at this time instead of crowding all the departures in the early morning,” said a senior offcial of AAI.“We do not have runway congestion as the runway can handle more planes. If there is a need, second runway can also be used,” he said.The lack of space in apron and absence of rapid exit taxiway slows down the number of flights that can be handled.

Stay updated with all the Chennai Latest News headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.