Several planes grounded as mercury soars in north India

New Delhi: An unusually intense heat wave across north India affected air travel Saturday and over half a dozen flights were disrupted in at least three cities as temperatures at runways touched a 49 degrees Celsius.
In the Indian capital where the temperature touched 44.9 degrees, the highest for this year, at least five flights of state-run Indian Airlines and private carrier Jet Airways could not take off due to the weather conditions.
According to the met office at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport here, the runway temperature recorded a maximum of 49.5 degrees though the air temperature at the airport was 46.1 degrees.
"Due to the weather, flight schedules were disrupted to some extent between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. In high temperature the air becomes thin and creates problems for the plane in take-off," said R.K. Jenamani, meteorological director at the IGI airport.
"During such times, planes should carry less load than its capacity. Either they have to shed some cargo, passengers or fuel but due to economic reasons they (airlines) seem to have decided to delay the flights," Jenamani added.
While the airport of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh recorded a maximum temperature of 42 degrees Celsius, the mercury climbed to 46 degrees at Jammu, the winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir.
09/06/07 IANS/NewKerala.com

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Categories: Airports Jun 2007, General Aviation Jun 2007