Poor visibility hits flight operations

Tribune News Service

Mohali, December 21

Flight operations were disrupted at the Chandigarh International Airport on Thursday due to poor visibility and fog.

The Srinagar-Chandigarh-Delhi flight of SpiceJet was diverted to Delhi and could not land in

Chandigarh. The flight was supposed to land at 3.05 pm but had to be diverted to Delhi due to poor visibility, much to the chagrin of passengers.

A passengers said, “After landing at the Delhi airport, the airline staff seemed clueless. We kept waiting with our luggage for a long time,” adding that no vehicle was arranged for them to travel to Chandigarh.

Chandigarh International Airports Limited (CHIAL) PRO Deepesh Joshi said, “Five flights were cancelled and three flights delayed due to inclement weather.”

Those cancelled included IndiGo’s flight to Dubai, Vistara’s flight to Delhi, Air India’s Pune-Chandigarh-Mumbai flight and the Sharjah-Chandigarh-Jammu flight of Air India, which had to be diverted to Amritsar.

SpiceJet’s morning flight to Delhi, which departs at 8.40 am, was delayed by an hour and 35 minutes. The flight of Air India to Pune departed by an hour and 30 minutes late. GoAir’s flight to Mumbai was delayed by half an hour.

Airport officials said IndiGo would operate an additional flight to Dubai on Friday to accommodate today’s passengers. The flight would depart from Chandigarh at 11.25 am.