In a move to further enhance air connectivity, GVK MIAL’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) has announced the commencement of direct flight operations by Air Canada, which started on July 2. Apart from introducing direct services to Toronto, MIAL, in the past six months, has launched four new direct routes to Jakarta, Bali, Brussels and Kigali. In keeping with this, the new Mumbai-Toronto route will be serviced by Air Canada all year long, deploying a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner with a capacity of 298 passengers and two-class configuration of business class and economy. For the Mumbai-Singapore route, Singapore Airlines has started using an extra wide body Airbus A350-900 XWB with a capacity of 253 passengers and a standard three-class configuration.
The Mumbai-Canada and Mumbai-Singapore corridors offer significant business opportunities, as with the other routes served by CSIA, which represents 17 per cent of all India traffic. A key gateway of India, the Mumbai International Airport has over 45 airlines operating to 48 destinations from the city to various parts of the world. Handling 12.4 million international passengers, CSIA ranked second in the foreign tourist arrivals in India in FY 2017, constituting 17 per cent of the country’s total foreign tourist arrivals and contributing 20 per cent to India’s total tourists’ arrival on e-tourist visa.
At present, B777 and A380 as well as A350 aircraft are being operated at CSIA, on the Mumbai-Singapore and the Mumbai-Munich route respectively. The Mumbai-Addis Abba route has also been served by the A350 since April, 2017. Handling the maximum daily air traffic movements (ATMs) on a single runway system in the world, CSIA also briefly earned the distinction of being the only airport in India to handle four Code F operations per day.