Best Hotels Near Mumbai Airport

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Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (IATA: BOM, ICAO: VABB), formerly known as Sahar International Airport, is the primary international airport serving the Mumbai Metropolitan Area, India. It is the second busiest airport in the country in terms of total and international passenger traffic after Delhi, and was the 14th busiest airport in Asia and 29th busiest airport in the world by passenger traffic in calendar year 2016 handling over 44.68 million passengers. Its passenger traffic crossed 45 million in fiscal year 2016-17. The airport is the second busiest in the country in terms of cargo traffic also. In March 2017, the airport overtook London's Gatwick Airport as the world's busiest airport in terms of single runway operations. The airport has three operating terminals spread over an operational area of 750 hectares (1,850 acres) and handles about 850 aircraft movements per day. It handled a record 51 movements in one hour on 16 September 2014. It won the 2015 ASQ Best Airport Award in the 25-40 million passengers per annum category by Airports Council International. It has also won the "Best Airport in India and Central Asia" award at the Skytrax 2016 World Airport Awards. It is one of the three airports in India to have implemented Airport Collaborative Decision Making (A-CDM) to ensure timely takeoffs and landings.

The airport is operated by Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL), a Joint Venture between the Airports Authority of India and the GVK Industries Ltd led consortium which was appointed in February 2006 to carry out the modernisation of the Airport. The new integrated terminal T2 was inaugurated on 10 January 2014 and opened for international operations on 12 February 2014. A dedicated six lane, elevated road connecting the new terminal with the main arterial Western Express Highway was also opened to the public the same day.

The airport is named after the 17th-century Maratha emperor, Chhatrapati Shivaji. It was re-renamed Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, adding "Maharaj" to the name, by the Government of Maharashtra on 8 December 2016. CSIA's IATA airport code - "BOM" - is derived from Bombay, Mumbai's former name. It is situated across the suburbs of Santacruz, Vile Parle and Sahar village in Andheri.

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History

RAF Santacruz was constructed in the 1930s. It was a bigger airfield than Juhu and was home to several RAF squadrons during World War II from 1942 to 1947. The Airport covered an area of about 1,500 acres (610 ha) and initially had three runways. The apron existed on the south side of runway 09/27, and the area, referred to today as the "Old Airport", houses, among others, maintenance hangars of Air India, Air Works India and MIAL's General Aviation Terminal.

By 1946, when the RAF began the process of handing over the airfield to the Director General of Civil Aviation for Civil operations, two old abandoned hangars of the Royal Air Force had been converted into a terminal for passenger traffic. One hangar was used as a domestic terminal and the other for international traffic. It had counters for customs and immigration checks on either side and a lounge in the centre. Air India handled its passengers in its own terminal adjoining the two hangars. In its first year, it handled six civilian services a day.

Traffic at the airport increased after Karachi was partitioned to Pakistan and as many as 40 daily domestic and foreign services operated by 1949, prompting the Indian Government to develop the airport, equipping the airport with a night landing system comprising a Radio range and a modernised flare path lighting system Construction of a new passenger terminal and apron began in 1950 and was commissioned in 1958. Named after the neighbourhood in which it stood and initially under the aegis of the Public Works Department, the new airport was subsequently run by the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

A major fire gutted the International section of the terminal building on 21 September 1979, killing three passengers and shutting down the airport. A temporary departure extension or "Gulf Terminal" was made functional in October that year until the terminal was repaired.

With the dawning of the Jumbo Jet era in the 1970s, Santacruz, despite several extensions, began suffering from insufficient operational capacity. The Tata committee, set up in 1967 to examine the issues concerning the airport, had recommended the construction of a new international terminal to meet the requirements of traffic in the seventies. The Santa Cruz terminal was to be used for domestic traffic alone. The International Airport Authority of India (IAAI), which was set up in 1972, started planning the construction of a new terminal building for handling international passenger traffic, to be completed by 1981. Accordingly, construction of the new International terminal at Sahar to the north-east of Santacruz in Andheri was taken up at an estimated cost of INR 110 million.

AAI had been considering the modernisation of Mumbai airport in 1996 although the AAI board approved a modernisation proposal only in 2003. By then, Mumbai and Delhi airports were handling 38% of the country's aircraft movement and generating one third of all revenues earned by AAI. At that time, Mumbai airport handled 13.3 million passengers, 60% of which were domestic travellers. The airport faced severe congestion for both aircraft and passengers as it was handling twice as many aircraft movements per day than it was originally designed for. The bidding process for its modernisation eventually began in May 2004 with the decision by the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) was announced in January 2006.

The consortium of GVK Industries Ltd, Airports Company South Africa and Bidvest, won the bid to manage and operate CSIA. To accomplish this task, Mumbai International Airport Private Limited (MIAL), a Joint Venture between the consortium (74%) and the Airports Authority of India (26%) was formed. Since then, MIAL has made several improvements in the aesthetics, design and passenger conveniences at CSIA including the refurbishment of domestic terminals 1A & 1B, international terminals 2B & 2C and the opening of a brand new domestic terminal 1C and Terminal 2. MIAL also undertook airside improvement projects such as the commissioning of new taxiways, aprons and the reconstruction of both runways. In February 2008, MIAL entered into an agreement with Air Transport IT specialist SITA that led to CSIA becoming the first airport in India to Implement Common-use self-service Kiosks and CUTE (Common Use Terminal Equipment) check-in systems.

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Structure

The airport consists of two passenger terminals: Terminal 1 at Santacruz for domestic flights and Terminal 2 at Sahar for both international and domestic flights. While both terminals use the same airside facilities, they are physically separated on the cityside, requiring a 15-20-minute (landside) drive between them. MIAL operates coach shuttle services between the two terminals for the convenience of transit passengers.

Runways

The airport has two intersecting runways. Both runways have been upgraded to Code F, which means they can accommodate larger aircraft like the Airbus A380. Following a presentation in March 2011 by UK's air traffic service provider NATS on how the capacity of the airport can be increased, MIAL set a target of 48 aircraft movements an hour in an effort to reduce congestion at the airport. Both runways were operated simultaneously especially during peak hours to try and attain this target. MIAL scrapped simultaneous Cross-runway flight operations in mid-2013 after it found that single runway operations were more effective for increasing Aircraft movements per hour. Runway 14/32 is now used only when the main runway is unavailable due to maintenance or other reasons. The construction of new rapid exit taxiways helped in increasing flight handling capacity from 32 movements per hour to 44 in 2012.

Issues with utilising 14/32 are:

• Trombay Hill, lies 4.5 nmi (8.3 km) away from the 32 end, an approach that was temporarily made a No-Fly zone because the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) nuclear complex at Trombay (Anushakti Nagar) lies within its flight path.

MIAL was considering constructing a second parallel runway as part of its master plan. However, the construction of this runway would necessitate a large-scale relocation of either Air-India's hangars and maintenance facilities or the airport's flight kitchens and the Sahar police station, among others, depending on its alignment. The parallel runway remains an active part of the expansion plan but in the meantime the cross runway is being upgraded as much as possible.

Air traffic control tower

India's tallest Air Traffic Control (ATC) Tower with a height of 85 m (279 ft) stands in a section of the parking area opposite terminal 1B. The triangular three-dimensional structure with soft vertices that won the Hong Kong Building Information Modeling (BIM) Award for the year 2009, has six storeys commencing from 62.1 m (204 ft) The tower was inaugurated on 18 October 2013 and took over operations on 1 January 2014.

From the new tower, air traffic controllers are able to see 8 km (5 mi) beyond the thresholds of both runways. The tower and its associated technical block and mechanical plant building cover a total of 2,884 m² (31,040 sq ft). The cost of the fully equipped tower is estimated at INR 4 billion.

The previous ATC tower, built by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) at an overall project cost of about INR 2.80 billion, was functional from 1999 to 2013. During that period, many airlines such as Singapore Airlines, Saudi, Qantas and United avoided landing at Mumbai airport when the secondary runway was in use as the ATC tower was too close to the runway and not in compliance with ICAO Standards. The tower penetrated runway 14/32's transitional obstacle limitation surfaces by over 50 metres (for instrument approaches). The tower also obstructed the path of a parallel taxiway under construction for the secondary runway. MIAL demolished the tower in 2014.

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Terminals

The airport has two main passenger terminal complexes. Terminal 1 at Santacruz is dedicated for domestic passengers. The new Terminal 2 at Sahar is an integrated terminal catering to both international and domestic passengers.

Current terminals

Terminal 1

Terminal 1 is used for domestic flights. This was the original Santacruz building that was once used for international and domestic operations and was previously known as 1B. It was refurbished several times over the decades, the most recent being during the 2000s. It is used by SpiceJet, GoAir and IndiGo. The terminal has 11 passenger boarding bridges. MIAL renamed the T1B to T1 in January 2017 to help fliers identify it easily. Several airlines operate airconditioned Cerita buses owned by BEST to ferry passengers between the terminal and aircraft.

Terminal 2

Larsen & Toubro (L&T) was awarded the contract to construct the new Terminal 2. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) was the architectural designer of the project. SOM also provided the schematic design of structure and MEP and the detailed structural design of the roof. Detailed design of the foundations and the rest of the structure and civil works, the MEP, IT and airport systems, including the full construction documentation of the project was carried out by L&T's inhouse design team, EDRC (Engineering Design and Research Center). The terminal covers a land area of 210,000 square metres and has replaced the previous International Terminal (which has already been demolished). The entire project was estimated to cost INR98 billion (US$1.5 billion) and employ over 12,000 workers. The X-shaped terminal has a total floor area of 450,000 square metres across four floors and handles both domestic and international passengers. It includes new taxiways and apron areas for aircraft parking designed to cater to 40 million passengers annually. The iconic structure has boarding gates on two piers extending southwards from a central processing building featuring a 42-metre high roof employing over 20,000 metric tonnes of fabricated steel covering 30 acres. The new T2 terminal building operates Multiple Aircraft Ramp System (MARS) stands and swing gates, so that a single stand can accommodate either one wide body aircraft or two narrow body aircraft, in either domestic or international configuration. The new terminal is connected by the six-lane Sahar Elevated Access Road to the Western Express Highway. A metro rail link to the terminal is also planned.

The new terminal has around 21,000 square meters of retail space, lounges and travel services, over 5,000 square meters of landscaping and a multi level car park for 5,000 cars. The parking Management System and Revenue control system for the entire MLCP has been designed and supplied by SKIDATA. It has 192 check-in counters and 60 immigration counters for departing passengers, and 14 baggage carousels and 76 immigration counters for arriving passengers. To transfer passengers across its four levels, the building has 48 escalators and 75 elevators. The terminal also features 42 travelators. In the initial phase of development, the apron adjoining T2 provides a total of 48 stands including 3 Code F stands (for the A-380). In the final phase of development a total of 38 Code E/F contact stands, 14 Code E/F remote stands and 20 Code C remote stands are provided (total 72 stands).

The GVK Lounge, the first common luxury lounge at an airport in India, opened in November 2014. The lounge is open to First class and Business class travellers and can accommodate 440 guests at a time.. It is spread over 30,000 square feet across two levels of the terminal and has a library, a business centre and fine-dining options, apart from the usual facilities like concierge services, smoking zone, Food and Beverage, bar, luxury spa, shower area and a relaxation area. The luxury lounge has won the 'World's Leading Airport Lounge - First Class 2015' award at the World Travel Awards 2015 held in Morocco.

The terminal also houses the Niranta Airport Transit Hotel and the 32 room hotel is the first of its kind in the country. It is located on Level 1 of the terminal and rooms may be booked by passengers who have checked into the airport.

The old international terminal was closed permanently at 13:00 on 12 February 2014, and international operations from the new terminal commenced from the same day. The first arrival was Air India flight 343(an Airbus a330-200)from Singapore via Chennai, and the first departure was Jet Airways flight 118(a Boeing 777-300ER) to London . Dedicated domestic operations at T2 were launched on 9 January 2015, with the inaugural flight of Vistara arriving from Delhi. Vistara initially operated from level 4 of the terminal, which is being used by international passengers. In July 2015, they shifted to level 3, which will be used exclusively for domestic operations. Air India shifted all its domestic operations from Terminal 1B to T2 on 1 October 2015 making it the second airline to operate domestic flights from the T2 Terminal, to ease their International and Domestic Transfer Passenger. Jet airways shifted its domestic operations to T2 on 15 March 2016, facilitating a seamless transfer experience for its passengers. Indigo airlines wished to continue their operations in Terminal 1B.

Car Parking & Passenger Arrivals All vehicles arriving at T2 to pick up arriving passengers are routed via the Multi Level Car Park and are charged a fee to counter traffic congestion at the airport. Vehicles are charged a minimum fee of Rs 110/- for 30 minutes.

General Aviation Terminal

CSIA's General Aviation Terminal for private and non-scheduled flight operators (NSOPs) is located at Kalina on the south-west side of the airfield. The terminal was approved for international operations in April 2011, making CSIA the first airport in India to have a self-contained terminal for handling round the clock domestic and international flight operations for private and NSOPs. The terminal offers facilities for passengers departing and arriving on private aircraft and business jets. The terminal has two exclusive lounges, two conference halls, two crew rest rooms and a café bar.

Previous terminals

Terminal 1A, B & C

When Sahar terminal was opened in the 80's. The terminal at Santacruz reverted to being a domestic terminal. The terminal consisted of three Structures, 1A, 1B and 1C.

• Terminal 1-A opened in April 1992, and was used solely by Indian Airlines (now Air India). In 2005, Kingfisher Airlines also began operating from 1A, after it entered into an agreement to source all ground handling and terminal space from Indian Airlines. In June 2013, shortly after Kingfisher ceased operations, MIAL allocated the vacant space to GoAir. From 1 October 2015, Air India moved all of its T1A operations to the new T2 Terminal. GoAir moved its departure operations to T1B on that same date, resulting in the closure of the T1A departures level. GoAir, however, continued to use T1A's arrivals level until 15 March 2016 when its arrivals were also shifted to T1B and 1A was shut.
• Terminal 1-B was the original Santacruz building that was once used for international and domestic operations. It was refurbished several times over the decades, the most recent being during the 2000s.
• Terminal 1-C was built at a cost of INR 3 billion and opened in April 2010. Architectural design was provided by Hafeez Contractor. EDRC, the inhouse design unit of the EPC contractor Larsen & Toubro (L&T) performed the Structural, MEP and IT / Airport systems design. The terminal had 6 passenger boarding bridges and allowed connectivity between terminals 1A and 1B. It was spread over 297,194 sq ft across three levels and had a seating capacity of about 900 passengers. Level 1 housed the offices of MIAL and some airlines, Level 2 comprised the security-hold area for passengers after checking in at either terminal 1A or 1B. Level 3 accommodated a food court. The building served as a boarding-only facility for all airlines. Passengers entered this facility via T1B.

In January 2017, MIAL renamed the Terminal 1B as T1.

Old Terminal 2

Terminal 2 of the airport is located at Sahar Village, in Andheri (East). Designed by Aéroports de Paris and opened in January 1981, Terminal 2 was built in three modular phases as 2-A, 2-B, and 2-C. Each module had a capacity of 2.5 million passengers. This terminal had an area of 120,000 m² (1,300,000 sq ft). The original terminal was a convex shaped single concourse building with 14 Code E contact stands. The greater T2 apron also provided a further 15 Code D/E and 6 Code C remote stands. This gave a total of 35 stands on the existing apron.

• 2-A This first phase of the terminal complex was completed at a cost of INR180 million (US$2.8 million) and served most international carriers. Its boarding gates 3 to 8 were the first aerobridges installed in the subcontinent. It was decommissioned and demolished in January 2009 to make way for the new T2 structure.
• 2-B, costing INR220 million (US$3.4 million) was completed in 1984. It served Air India and carriers handled by Air India between September 1986 and October 1999 and was decommissioned when 2-C opened. It was extensively refurbished and made operational once again following the demolition of 2A
• 2-C, inaugurated in October 1999, was originally exclusively for Air India, Air India Express and those carriers whose ground operations were handled by Air India. 2B and 2C were decommissioned in February 2014 when the new T2 took over operations. 2B and 2C were demolished later that year, so that the remainder of the new T2 could be completed.

Cargo

The Air Cargo Complex, located west of the International passenger Terminal (T2), has been in operation since 1977. The cargo apron is capable of handling five wide-bodied aircraft. In 2009-10, the airport handled 385,937 metric tones of International Cargo and 165,252 metric tones of Domestic Cargo. Air India (AI) and Mumbai International Airport Pvt Ltd (MIAL) have been appointed as custodians of cargo by the Central Board of Excise and Customs at Mumbai. The Cargo Terminal has a Centre for Perishable Cargo (CPC) with an area of 1844 m² for perishable and temperature sensitive international export shipments, strong rooms of 115 m² for storage of valuable cargo and storage areas for dangerous goods in both import and export warehouses, dedicated Unaccompanied Baggage handling and clearance areas and 9 coloured X-ray cargo screening machines for export cargo.

Apart from handling 65% of the international volumes at CSIA, MIAL also operates a Common User Domestic Cargo Facility. After taking over the redevelopment work of the airport in 2006, MIAL commissioned an offshore Common User Terminal (CUT) near the Marol pipeline as a temporary arrangement. In June 2016, MIAL opened a new domestic cargo CUT near the Western Express Highway in Vile Parle.

The CUT has been outsourced to Concor Air Ltd. on a Build-operate-transfer basis. The terminal has the capacity to handle 300,000 metric tonnes of cargo annually and is built on an area of 60,000 square feet. The Cargo Terminal is an "elevated terminal structure" where all arriving domestic cargo is managed from the basement level while departing cargo is handled at the upper level. Air India and Blue Dart handle their own domestic cargo operations at their own terminals.

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Airlines and destinations

Passenger

Cargo

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Access

Ville Parle (East) is a railway station on the Western line and Harbour line of the Mumbai Suburban Railway network closest to the Domestic Terminal.
Andheri (East) is a railway station on the Western and Harbour lines closest to the International Terminal.
Airport Road and Marol Naka are the stations on Line 1 of the Mumbai Metro system closest to the International Terminal.
Western Express Highway (WEH) is the station on Line 1 of the Mumbai Metro system closest to the Domestic Terminals.

The Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport Undertaking (BEST) operates air-conditioned buses to the Airport from various parts of the city and the suburbs. The Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport (NMMT) runs bus services to the Airport from various nodes of Navi Mumbai.

The proposed Line 3 of the Mumbai Metro that will run underground from Colaba to SEEPZ will serve CSIA via three stations -- one each at the Santacruz and Sahar terminals and one in the GVK SkyCity. It will reduce the commute time between Colaba and the airport to 40 minutes.

In early 2012, the MMRDA held talks with MIAL to either construct or finance the construction of three of the line's stations. MIAL agreed to bear the cost of constructing the three stations, expected to total INR777 crore, because of the potential increase in passenger convenience. However, CSIA placed conditions before MMRDA for the corridor;

• The metro line should operate twenty four hours a day in order to serve passengers of international flights scheduled at odd hours.
• A provision be made for a check-in facility at all metro stations.

MIAL specified that the commercial rights of the three stations it constructs will fully rest with the authority, and that revenue earned from any commercial activity on the premises would go to MIAL. It would undertake the design and civil construction of the stations, costing INR600 crore, on its own, and would pay the estimated cost of electromechanical equipment (around INR177 crore) to MMRDA in three equal installments over three years.

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Accidents and incidents

1950s

• On 19 July 1959, Rani of Aera, a Lockheed L-1049G Super Constellation (registered VT-DIN) carrying 46 people (39 passengers and 7 crew) approached Santacruz Airport in conditions of poor visibility due to rain. The captain was using an altimeter with the barometric pressure set at 29.92". An overshoot was delayed and the aircraft crashed and suffered damage beyond repair. There were no fatalities.

1960s

• On 28 July 1963, an United Arab Airlines Flight 869 bound from Tokyo to Cairo with a partial stop in Bombay, crashed into the Arabian Sea before approaching Santacruz Airport. All 63 people on board (55 passengers and 8 crew members) died, including 24 passengers from the Philippines who were due to travel to Greece to attend the 11th World Scout Jamboree.
• On 28 May 1968, a Garuda Indonesian Airways Convair 990 bound for Karachi, Pakistan crashed into the sea shortly after taking off from Santa Cruz. All 29 people on board (15 passengers and 14 crew members) died. In addition, there was one casualty on the ground.

1970s

• On 12 October 1976: Indian Airlines Flight 171, a Sud Aviation SE 210 Caravelle had its right engine catch fire shortly after take off. The crew attempted to return, but the plane crashed approximately 1000 feet short of Runway 09. All six crew members and their 89 passengers were killed.
• On 1 January 1978 Air India Flight 855 a Boeing 747-237B crashed into the Arabian Sea after take off from Mumbai, killing all on board (213 persons; 190 passengers, 23 crew).
• On 4 August 1979: a Hawker Siddeley HS 748 aircraft was approaching Sahar International Airport (now Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport) at night and in poor weather when it flew into high terrain approximately 6 mi (9.7 km) from the airport, killing the four crew and their 41 passengers.

1980s

• On 25 March 1988: In an apparent terrorist attack, a gunman opened fire with an automatic pistol on Alitalia crew as they boarded their crew bus en route to a downtown Bombay hotel, wounding an Alitalia pilot. Later press accounts indicated that the attacker may have mistaken the Alitalia for a Pan Am crew because of similarities between their uniforms. The gunman was initially identified as Iranian, but later identified as a Lebanese national affiliated with Abu Nidal.

1992

In 1992 Bombay became the first domestic airport in the country to have an Aerobridge. As I can remember the then Hon'ble Minister Madhav Rao Sindhi ji inaugurated the New Facility and the flights were to be put to use the Aerobridge from next day. Next Day flight was docked to the Aerobridge; while it was docked some one pressed the move button and the bridge starting moving upward along with the Door of the Aircraft in panic the staff pressed the Down switch it started moving downward and touched the ground; thereby damaging the aircraft and media as we know flared up the matter and the Charm of new facility and the proud of having it done was marred. However the situation was managed effectively by the team of officer lead by the then Chairman, Member Operations and the Airport Director to restore the organisation's pride. Lesson Learnt is that while launching such facilities effective trials, effective training and deputing right personnel is important.

2000s

• On 4 September 2009, Air India Flight 829 a Boeing 747-437 flying on the Mumbai-Riyadh route caught fire at the Airport. The fire started in number one engine while the aircraft was taxiing to Runway 27 for take-off. An emergency evacuation was carried out with no injuries among the 228 people (213 passengers and 15 crew) on board.
• On 10 November 2009, Kingfisher Airlines Flight 4124, operated by ATR 72-212A VT-KAC skidded off the runway after landing. The aircraft suffered substantial damage but all 46 passengers and crew escaped unharmed.

2010s

• On 2 September 2011, Turkish Airlines Flight 720, from Istanbul, skidded off rapid exit taxiway N8 after landing. No injuries were reported but the incident has been called "serious" by an official and a probe has been ordered.
• On 17 December 2015, an Air India engineer was sucked into the engine of flight AI 619 during taxiing and died. Investigations revealed that the aircraft had begun taxiing without the pilots realising that four ground personnel were still around. The technician who died had his back towards the plane and got sucked in. Three other technicians barely managed to escape because they were facing it.

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Awards and honours

• Best Airport in India and Central Asia at the Skytrax 2016 World Airport Awards.
• Best Airport in the World for 2015 in the 25-40 million passengers per annum category by the Airport Council International.
• Third-best in the world in the 25-40 million passengers category by Airports Council International in 2011.
• Best Airport in Public-Private Partnership by the Air Passengers Association of India (APAI).
• Aeronautical Excellence Airport of the Year 2008 from Frost & Sullivan.

Source of the article : Wikipedia