Chandigarh, Jan 16: Thick fog and operational hurdles grounded air travel at Shaheed Bhagat Singh International Airport on Friday morning, forcing the cancellation of several key flights to Delhi, Jaipur, and Pune. The weather conditions left the terminal crowded with waiting passengers as the airport’s schedule was reconfigured throughout the day.
The morning started with the immediate cancellation of 7:10 a.m. and 7:35 a.m. departures to Delhi and Jaipur. It took nearly four hours for the first incoming flight to land, with a Mumbai service touching down at 11:55 a.m. instead of its planned 8:20 a.m. arrival.
“The flight schedule at the Chandigarh airport was wrecked today with most arrivals and departures late by four to five hours,” a representative of the airline operations team said regarding the chaos.
Diversions added to the logistical strain when an IndiGo service from Hyderabad was unable to land, eventually being rerouted to Jaipur in the afternoon. Other major delays included a Delhi-bound flight originally scheduled for 12:35 p.m. that was moved to a 2:50 p.m. slot.
As the fog began to lift slightly in the afternoon, the departure for Srinagar was rescheduled for nearly five hours after its original time. Ground crews noted that while some flights finally managed to depart for Lucknow and Mumbai, the ripple effect of the morning fog would likely impact the airport’s efficiency for the remainder of the day.
