AI cancels 2 flights

Akash Ghai

Tribune News Service

Mohali, March 17

The Indo-Pak tension has adversely affected domestic flights in the region. Air India had to cancel some of its Chandigarh-Delhi flights from the local airport under makeshift arrangements.

Sources said the routes of international flights over Pakistan had been closed due to which several flights were taking longer to reach their destinations, which in turn was causing disruption in domestic flights.

Air India has cancelled its Delhi-Chandigarh/Chandigarh-Delhi (AI 463/464) flight for three days from tomorrow till March 20 due to operational reasons. Today, the Air India flight from Delhi arrived at the airport in Mohali at 12.05 pm and departed for Delhi at 12.50 pm.

Besides, Air India has also cancelled its Alliance flight from Kullu to Chandigarh and Chandigarh to Kullu for three days. “The Chandigarh-Kullu/Kullu-Chandigarh flight will not operate tomorrow, on March 20 and on March 21,” said MR Jindal, station manager of Air India, Chandigarh.

Sources said following closure of Pakistan air space, domestic flight operations had been disrupted. “Several international flights, which earlier crossed over Pakistan, have now changed their routes to avoid Pakistan airspace. As a result, the duration of the (international flights) journey has increased substantially in several cases, which consequently has started adversely affecting flight schedules, including domestic operations,” said the sources.

“The disruption in flight operations has occurred as airlines had to adjust flight routes by cancelling some flights. Air India recently had to cancel its certain international flights, including New Delhi to Birmingham and Kabul. The disruption in flight operations will continue in the coming days,” said the sources.