Air passengers departing and arriving at the city airport may face a tough time Tuesday as both the main and secondary runways will remain shut for operations for six hours, starting 11 am, for repair and maintenance work.

Mumbai airport will undertake runway maintenance and repair in two phases between October, and February-March period.

The move is likely to affect as many a many as 300 flights per day during the period.

"Mumbai airport runway will be closed from 1100 hours to 1700 hours IST. Please visit Air India website, app or contact call centre for details on rescheduled and cancelled flights," national carrier Air India informed its passengers through a tweet Monday.

The flights of others carriers are also expected to be hit in a big way, a source said.

Due to the work, both the runways 09/27 and 14/32 will remain shut for operations between 11 am and 5 pm on October 23, Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) had said earlier on October 4.

In the second phase, the maintenance and repair work on the intersection will be carried out between February 7 and March 30 (except on March 21) from 11 am to 5 pm on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

While the primary runway can handle up to 50 arrivals and departures an hour against the declared capacity of 46, the secondary runway has a capacity of 35 flight movements an hour.

The airport handles about 1,000 flights a day on an average.

First Published:Oct 23, 2018 5:36 AM IST