3 Amritsar-bound flights diverted to Chandigarh due to poor visibility

The AQI in Amritsar reached 336 on Saturday afternoon and the air quality in the surrounding areas significantly worsened, reducing visibility drastically. The visibility at the Amritsar airport was reduced to 550 metres Saturday morning, the authorities said.

“It’s not that all flights are diverted. Every airline has its own set of instructions and training for the pilots. Some pilots land flights with 500 metres of visibility. But it depends on the training and instructions from their respective airlines. So, three flights were diverted on Saturday morning,” said Sandeep Agarwal, Acting Airport Director, Amritsar.

Talking about the low visibility, Agarwal said, “We can’t say why visibility was low. It could be due to weather, pollution or other reasons.”

Airlines like Vistara and SpiceJet attributed the diversions to the poor weather conditions.

Vistara posted on X that its flight UK695 from Mumbai to Amritsar (BOM-ATQ) was diverted to Chandigarh due to poor weather at the Amritsar airport. Later, the flight departed from Chandigarh (IXC) at 10:50 am and arrived in Amritsar at 11:25 am.

A flight from Hyderabad was diverted to Chandigarh due to the low visibility in Amritsar.

SpiceJet reported that its flight SG 56 from Dubai was diverted to Chandigarh due to poor weather in Amritsar.

The Executive Engineer of the Punjab Pollution Control Board in Amritsar said, “The AQI in Amritsar before Diwali was normal. But it has worsened post-Diwali. We can’t specify the contribution of crackers, farm fires and weather conditions to the low visibility without a more specific study. However, all these factors must have impacted the visibility.”