Chennai airport has suspended the arrival of flight operations from 1.15 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursday due to severity of winds. Officials of the Airports Authority of India said that departure flights will continue as usual.
The Twitter handle of Chennai airport said: “Due to severe rains and heavy cross winds, arrivals at #AAI Chennai Airport will remain suspended from 1315 hrs to 1800 hrs, today. Departures will continue. The decision has been taken considering the safety aspect of passengers and severity of wind @AAI_Official”.
Twenty four flights were affected at Chennai airport on Thursday morning, due to adverse weather conditions. Eleven flights which had to arrive in the city from various destinations like Kolkata, Delhi, Bengaluru, Tiruchi and Madurai had to be diverted to either Bengaluru or Hyderabad because the flights couldn’t land here.
Eleven flights from cities including Coimbatore, Guwahati, Mumbai, London, Jaipur, Dubai, Vijaywada and Pune and three departure flights to Lucknow and Kolkata were all delayed on Thursday morning.
Sources said, due to heavy winds, flights have been finding it difficult to land at the airport and had to hover over for a while before arriving here till about noon after which they decided to suspend the arrival flights for nearly five hours.