Photo by Ravi Dwivedi, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Delhi airport disrupted as red alert rain delays 550+ flights
Heavy rain triggered an IMD red alert in Delhi on Friday, flooding IGI Airport and delaying more than 550 flights, with 10 aircraft diverted to nearby cities.
Delhi’s airport faced major disruption on Friday as an IMD red alert and heavy rain delayed more than 550 flights.
Palam logged the heaviest rainfall in the city at 75.6mm, with Naraina, Janakpuri, Lodhi Road and Safdarjung also seeing significant totals.
Ten aircraft were diverted during the disruption, five to Jaipur, four to Lucknow, and one each to Ahmedabad and Chandigarh.
Waterlogging around Terminal 3 and the Vasant Kunj underpass disrupted road access to the airport through the day.
IndiGo and Air India both issued advisories asking passengers to check flight status ahead of time and plan for slower travel.
The IMD’s red alert signals the most severe warning level, reserved for extremely heavy rainfall expected to cause significant disruption to daily life and infrastructure.
Delhi has faced repeated bouts of airport disruption this monsoon season, with heavy rain periodically triggering diversions and delays at IGI in recent weeks.
IGI Airport is one of the busiest in the country, typically handling well over a thousand flight movements a day, meaning disruptions there tend to cascade across the wider domestic network.
Passengers travelling to and from Delhi in the coming days have been advised to monitor airline communications closely given the ongoing unsettled weather pattern.
Palam recorded the highest rainfall in Delhi at 75.6mm by late afternoon, while Naraina registered 54mm, Janakpuri 48.5mm, Lodhi Road 34.6mm and Safdarjung 32.6mm.
Five aircraft were redirected to Jaipur, four to Lucknow, and one each to Ahmedabad and Chandigarh as the airport struggled to handle the volume of traffic during the downpour.
Waterlogging paralysed traffic around Terminal 3 and the underpass linking the airport to Vasant Kunj, compounding the disruption for passengers travelling to and from IGI.
More than 550 flights were delayed at IGI Airport during Friday’s disruption, according to Flightradar24 data cited by The Times of India.
Photo by Ravi Dwivedi, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0