Monday was a rocky day for Delhi Airport, with flights disrupted in the early hours of the morning and again in the night. The city has been hit with storms and winds as fast as 75km/hr during the pre-monsoon rains in recent days. All of this saw over 35 flights diverted to nearby airports and 100s more delayed as Delhi waited for safer conditions.
Last-minute changes
The first bout of weather troubles began at 06:00 AM local time and stretched on until 10:00 AM. 20 flights were diverted during this time, mainly to Jaipur Airport (13), two each to Lucknow and Amritsar, and one each to Ahmedabad, Mumbai, and Indore. Diversions were over by 09:00 AM and a few flights began to land safely.
However, dozens of flights remained in the sky in holding patterns since they had enough fuel to wait off the worst. Other flights were held on the ground at their departure airports to prevent a pile-up of traffic above Delhi. The morning disruption had a knock-on effect for hours as the airport delayed flights to clear the backlog.
In a statement to the Hindustan Times, the Indian Meteorology Department said,
"A top speed of 75 km per hour was reported at 6:56 am at the Delhi airport. Such strong winds or wind shear make landing difficult"
Storms hit again
It was nearly 14:00 hours when the last flights from the morning's disruption landed in Delhi finally. However, by 20:00 that night, bad weather was hitting the airport once again. The first diversion of the night occurred at 21:00 local time to Ahemdabad, with ANI tweeting that 15 flights were diverted to Jaipur, Lucknow, and Chandigarh.
Diversions stretched until around 23:30 when flights finally began landing normally thanks to better weather. The evening did see some cancelations as well, as carriers were prepared for the potential impact of the thunderstorms. While many passengers were left delayed on the ground, the weather remains one variable out of control for anyone.
By 00:30, normal operations were resuming and Tuesday has been smooth-sailing for now. It has been a while since serious disruptions were seen in May due to thunderstorms, with the previous instance in 2018 when 70 flights were diverted, according to The Times of India.
Bracing for the worst
While air travel is the fastest means of commercial travel out there, weather quickly sends things into a tailspin. In Delhi, rain is linked to traffic and waterlogging too, resulting in the airport struggling to process inbound or outbound passengers in time. However, these issues aren't ever-present and on most days, travel remains seamless.
Have you been impacted by weather-related diversions before? Let us know in the comments!
Source: ANI, Hindustan Times, The Times of India