Rain gods, air traffic play havoc on flights

Mumbai: Poor weather in Delhi clubbed with peak-hour air congestion delayed at least half-a-dozen flights, particularly those from Delhi to Mumbai, on Friday night.
Planes continued circling over the city only to be diverted to places like Ahmedabad to refuel and return. “Our Delhi-Mumbai flight, which was supposed to leave at 7.50 pm, took off at 9.30 pm,’’ said Dhiren Kanwar, a passenger on Go Air’s G8-171. “We reached Mumbai at 11.30 pm, only to hover over the city for a while before flying to Ahmedabad where it halted for 25 minutes. When the flight eventually landed at 3.20 am, the commander informed the passengers that the night’s diversions and delays had cost the airline Rs 4-5 lakh more.’’
Ashwini Naik, a passenger on Air India Delhi-Mumbai flight 810, had a similar, but not so trying an experience. “My flight took off at 6.15 pm, just 15 minutes behind schedule. But when we were over Vadodara around 7.30 pm, the commander said the Mumbai runway had been shut for about 30 minutes for an emergency landing. We finally landed at 9 pm. We reached the terminal building only by 9.25 pm as the aircraft was apparently given a remote bay.’’
However, the Mumbai International Airport Pvt Ltd (MIAL) spokesperson clarified that there was no emergency landing on Friday night and the runway was not shut for regular flights.
02/05/10 Times of India

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Categories: a, Airports May 2010, Indian Aviation- In General May 2010