A bird’s eye view of GMR Hyderabad International Airport.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Bad weather conditions and poor visibility wreaked havoc with flight schedules at Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) on Monday, causing delays to 45 flights and three diversions. As travellers prepared for festive journeys on Christmas, their plans were thwarted by the impact on flight services. The brunt of the disruptions was felt on busy routes like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, and Bangalore.
IndiGo Airlines faced the majority of the delays, with 31 of its flights affected, including two diversions. SpiceJet experienced seven delays, Air Vistara faced five delays, while both Air India and Alliance Air had two delayed flights each. Additionally, Oman Air encountered one flight diversion.
Flight diversion
Three flights experienced diversions. Flight 6E 495, originally departing from Chennai International Airport at 6:45 a.m. with the destination of Hyderabad, was redirected to Nagpur. Likewise, Flight 6E 5012, which took off from Mumbai at 6:35 a.m., also faced a diversion to Nagpur. Additionally, Oman Air WY 235, en route from Muscat to Hyderabad was diverted and landed in Bangalore instead.
The sequence of events unfolded when Air Vistara took to X (formerly Twitter), to announce that two of its flights, UK 897 and UK 873, scheduled to land at RGIA, had to retreat to their departure airports. UK 897, originating from Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport, took off at 7.17 a.m but had to return to Bengaluru at 9.40 a.m due to adverse weather conditions in Hyderabad. Similarly, UK 873, departing from Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport at 6.25 a.m, had to return at 9.15 a.m due to the inclement weather.
On the International route, IndiGo’s 6E 1493 from Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport and 6E 1318 from Doha International Airport to RGIA were delayed on Monday morning.
Passengers, already at the airport, were caught off guard by the delays, causing stress and inconvenience. IndiGo responded on X, acknowledging the impact on flights to and from Hyderabad due to adverse weather conditions. The airline assured passengers that its airport team was working diligently to provide the best service under the challenging circumstances.
