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Thirteen go-arounds and seven diversions of flights were reported at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai by Tuesday evening as the city recorded the highest rainfall since July 2005. In all, ten flights were cancelled. Many airlines said that several flights took off or landed with some delay, with reports of many passengers failing to show up having been stuck on the roads and those landing in the city struggling to get cabs to reach their destinations.
Operations at Juhu airport remained suspended from 3.30 pm to 6 pm due to low visibility, officials said. “Due to low visibility, flights were running fifteen to twenty minutes late. The landing operations had to be curtailed due to traffic congestion. The operation is on but there is a no show from passengers too,” an official from Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) said.
“Take off and landings of flights were delayed by at least twenty minutes throughout the day due to heavy rains and poor visibility. The excessive speed of winds also led to suspension of landing operations at the airport between 4.30 pm and 6 pm. The main runway remained operational and no water-logging was witnessed. Till Tuesday evening, flights continued to remain late by at least twenty minutes,” a senior Air Traffic Control (ATC) official said, who also added that the airport is operational now.
Officials from Jet Airways said that their two flights between Delhi and Mumbai had to be cancelled. An official statement from the Indigo airline read, “Due to the incessant rainfall in Mumbai, three Indigo flights, 6E-453 Coimbatore-Mumbai, 6E-5924 Guwahati-Mumbai and 6E-1708 Doha-Mumbai had to be diverted to Ahmedabad which departed for Mumbai only after the weather was clear. At IndiGo, customer service is core to our business. In such circumstances our endeavour is to keep our customers informed about the status of the flight,” an official statement from the airline said.
Officials from Air India said that one of their flights was cancelled and two flights diverted to Ahmedabad. “Nearly six flights have been delayed because crew movement is too slow, as pick up vans are not able to reach the destination. Most of the Mumbai flights inbound and outbound were affected since morning. Flights have been delayed by more than 30 minutes,” the spokesperson of Air India said.
“In view of inclement weather in Mumbai, applicable penalties of re-issuance, date change, no-show, cancellation & refund charges stand waived on all tickets issued on before 29.08.2017 for travel to and from Mumbai on 29th August, 2017,” the Air India spokesperson said.
Passengers complained that they were stuck in Mumbai airport for a long time due to unavailability of cab services. “I reached home only three hours after departure at Mumbai as no cab services were available. Our flight was delayed by 45 minutes in landing which further caused a delay. Many other passengers also complained of the inconvenience caused,” said Rujuta Sethe, a passenger travelling in Air India flight to Mumbai from Delhi. Most cabs were stuck in traffic, forcing some to share a cab or to wait inside.
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