Shutdown Timings and Days
From February 7th to March 30th, the airport will be shut down for six hours a day, three days a week i.e. 11:00 AM - 5:00 PM on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Except on the 21st of March, Thursday on the occasion of Holi when it will operate all day long. For all the other days and hours, the airport will remain operational.Charter planes and private aircrafts have also been intimated that no general aviation flights would be allowed between 7:00 AM and 7:00 PM on off days. However, air ambulances will have no restrictions imposed on them.
How is Going to Affect the Fliers ?
For the construction and revamping, a total of 230 flights are cancelled on a daily basis, most of which were supposed to fly to Delhi, Goa and Bangalore. The international flights however, have been rescheduled. Besides this inconvenience, the partial shutdown of the airport will lead to last-minute hike on fares of regular flights which might shoot up manifold. Officials estimate that the fares could go up to 80% on key routes and 30% for the other ones.Important airlines like Vistara, Jet Airways and GoAir have already cancelled a significant number of their flights or have re-routed them. The numbers being 22 for GoAir and 8 for Vistara.
There is already a slight hike in the regular fares of the flights. In case you are planning to take a trip to or via Mumbai during Feb-March, it is advisable to book your tickets well in advance to save yourself from the extravagant rates.