IAF exercise delays over 30 flights at IGI

New Delhi: Over 30 flights were delayed by 30 minutes to three hours and a few cancelled at IGI Airport on Thursday after the air route over central India was closed due to an Air Force exercise.
Aircraft from Maharashtra and southern India were made to take a detour towards Lucknow and then fly to Delhi, leading to massive congestion around the capital.
Airport sources said the first Air Force exercise began over Khajuraho and the second went on over Gwalior and Agra. "The entire route was affected and no flights could move over the area between 9 am and 4.30 pm. All flights that take this route were first diverted towards Lucknow from where they flew to Delhi. This also affected those flights which use the Lucknow route and several delays were reported through the day," said an airport source.
With a crucial part of central India closed for commercial flights, those coming into Delhi and going further north from places like Mumbai, Bangalore, Goa, Nagpur etc were especially affected. The route diversion also created problems for flights coming from the northeast and other eastern international routes. The cancelled flights included an Indigo flight to Goa, two international flights, one to Kathmandu and the other to Tehran, two Jet Airways flights to Gorakhpur and a couple of Air India flights to Mumbai.
19/11/10 Times of India

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Categories: Airports Nov 2010