Dust Storm Disrupts Delhi for Second Consecutive Day: Flights Delayed; Air India Issues Advisory
New Delhi (The Uttam Hindu): The effect of the severe dust storm that hit the national capital Delhi and surrounding areas on Friday continued on Saturday as well. Flight operations at Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI Airport) were badly affected due to bad weather. Many flights had to be diverted, some were cancelled and dozens of flights were delayed.
In view of these conditions, Air India has issued a travel advisory on Saturday advising passengers to remain cautious. The airline has feared that dust storms may occur again from 5:30 pm to 9:00 pm on Saturday, which may further disrupt flight operations. Air India has said in its official statement that like yesterday, today too adverse weather conditions can cause diversion of flights, delays in them and congestion in air traffic. This can also affect the flight schedule. The airline said that its teams are constantly working to normalise the situation and to ensure minimum inconvenience to passengers.
Air India has advised passengers to keep checking the latest status of their flights through the Air India website. Also, ground operations may also be affected due to bad weather, so passengers have been advised to leave for the airport with extra time. Air India regretted the inconvenience caused to the passengers and said that its top priority is the safety of the passengers and all necessary steps are being taken in this direction.
It is worth noting that the strong dust storm that hit Delhi and surrounding areas on Friday evening had severely disrupted air services at IGI Airport. Due to this storm, more than 50 domestic flights were delayed till Saturday morning, about 25 flights were diverted from their scheduled destinations and landed at other airports and many flights had to be cancelled.
Due to the dust storm, many flights coming to Delhi were diverted to other airports. When these flights returned to Delhi, a huge crowd of passengers gathered at the airport, causing them a lot of trouble. Due to this chaos, passengers expressed their displeasure on social media and accused the airlines of negligence. Some passengers complained of complete chaos at Terminal 3 of IGI Airport. They said that Air India should at least provide correct information about flights. Information boards are not being updated and no Air India staff is present to help. Passengers have demanded that in such a situation, the airlines and airport management should provide better information system and proper assistance to the passengers.
