Ambani wedding helped Mumbai airport attain a new record. Here’s how

New Delhi: Often it is said that one does not know what one is capable of, unless faced with a dire situation. That moment came to Mumbai's capacity-constrained Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) on the occasion of the Ambani wedding when it handled a record 1,007 aircraft movements in a day, bettering its earlier record of 1,003 flight movements in 24-hours in June this year.

According to sources, the airport managed to attain this feat on the pre-wedding bash of Isha Ambani, daughter of industrialist and India's richest person Mukesh Ambani, in Udaipur, Rajasthan on December 8. They added that a host of politicians, corporate honchos and Bollywood stars flew in private jets from Mumbai to attend the celebrations that started on December 7.

Isha is set to marry Piramal scion Anand Piramal on December 12 at Antilia, the residence of the Mukesh Ambani family in south Mumbai.

A Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) spokesperson confirmed that the airport handled a record 1,007 arrivals and departures on Saturday but did not divulge the factors leading to the surge in traffic movement.

Isha is set to marry Piramal scion Anand Piramal on December 12 at Antilia, the residence of the Mukesh Ambani family in south Mumbai.

Mumbai airport, with two crossing runways — 09/27 (the main) and 14/32 (the secondary runway) — is the main hub of full service carrier Jet Airways and budget airline GoAir. While the primary runway can handle up to 48 arrivals and departures per hour, the secondary runway has a capacity of 35 flight movements per hour.

The GVK-consortium-led Mumbai airport handled 48.49 million passengers in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2018, registering a 7.4 per cent growth over FY17.