Monsoon hits M’lore flights

Mangalore: For the second consecutive day, flight services were severely affected at Mangalore airport owing to incessant rain lashing Mangalore for the last 48 hours. Only two out of nine flights could land on Saturday.
The first flight of the day—Air India Express IX-812 Dubai-Mangalore which was scheduled to arrive at Mangalore at 6:30 am—was diverted to Kochi. As a result, passengers and their kin at the airport had no choice but to wait for the aircraft to get ATC clearance to land. But that did not happen till night due to inclement weather.
The same flight was supposed to return to Abu Dhabi via Muscat (IX-817) at 9:20 am and return in the evening via Muscat to Mangalore (IX-818) at 7:05 pm and again return to Dubai from Mangalore (IX-811) at 9:35 pm.
As the flight was stranded at Kochi airport, subsequent flights were cancelled,
disappointing hundreds of passengers and their kin waiting in the airport. Similarly, the IC-179 Mumbai-Mangalore flight by Indian Airlines which was scheduled to arrive at 10:55 am did not land, but returned to Mumbai after hovering around Mangalore airport for some time.
Three more flights (two belonging to Jet Airways and one to Kingfisher Airlines) that arrived from Mumbai to Mangalore also could not land and had to return to Mumbai.
When contacted, Air India Express Station Director Chellam Prasad said in the next 48 hours, the Air India Express services has suspended all its flights on Sunday (June 13).
12/06/10 Deccan Herald

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Categories: Airports Jun 2010