Many flights delayed, cancelled and diverted at Chennai airport due to poor visibility

Chennai airport faced severe flight disruptions on January 14 morning due to bad weather caused by smog.

Chennai airport faced severe flight disruptions on January 14 morning due to bad weather caused by smog. Apart from the 17 flights that were delayed, nearly 14 flights to and from various destinations were cancelled at the airport and five flights which had to arrive in Chennai were diverted. 

Officials of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) said several flights which had to arrive and depart to cities including Mumbai, Coimbatore, Kolkata, Visakhapatnam, Delhi, Bengaluru and Madurai were cancelled. The international flights that had to arrive early on Sunday from destinations including Singapore, London, Kuwait and Colombo were diverted to Hyderabad. Of the seven flights that were diverted, four had arrived before 11 a.m. and the rest are yet to land in the city airport.

“These disruptions occurred between 4.50 a.m. and 7.50 a.m. due to poor weather conditions. The visibility dropped to as low as 100 metres and hence flights couldn’t land or take off during those hours. Now, the flight operations have returned to normalcy and we don’t expect any further issues,” an official said.

Many passengers were frustrated due to the delays and diversions and took to social media platforms as well. On Twitter, a passenger Balaguhan posted: “@IndiGo6E @aaichnairport 6E 1002 traveling from Singapore to Chennai, due to weather conditions landed in Hyderabad at 05:20AM, until now no proper response from airline staffs, no proper arrangements for the passengers, until now all passengers got seated in airlines more than 10hrs…..Passengers all got angry and left from airplane to discuss with officials.”

Some of the passengers were upset that they had to wait for hours together and that no refreshments or alternate arrangements were offered by the airline.