Over 15 flights were diverted at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport on Friday evening due to a dust storm that ripped through the city and its surrounding areas. Flights have been diverted due to a dust storm in Delhi and its adjoining areas(HT_PRINT)

“Due to inclement weather conditions in Delhi, some of the flights at Delhi Airport are impacted. Passengers are advised to contact their respective airlines for the latest flight updates,” airport operator DIAL said in a post on X.

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IndiGo also said that the national capital region and Jaipur are experiencing a dust storm, affecting takeoffs and landings and potentially causing air traffic congestion. This may lead to delays or diversions, the airport operator said in the post.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued a red alert for Delhi and the adjoining NCR, warning of adverse weather conditions for the next few hours.

Air India also issued a travel advisory for their passengers stating that heavy thunderstorms and gusty winds have affected flight operations across parts of Northern India, due to which Air India flights from Delhi have either been diverted or delayed.

The advisory said, “We are closely monitoring the situation and are doing our best to minimise the disruption. We advise our guests to check the latest status of their flights at https://airindia.com/in/en/manage/flight-status.html before heading to the airport.”

Delhi sees dust storm for 2nd straight day

Delhi and its adjoining areas such as Noida, Ghaziabad and Gurugram are experiencing a dust storm for the second time this week. The gusty winds have caused power outages in some areas, though no serious damage has been reported yet.

Some areas have also reported light rainfall along with thunderstorms as well, which the weather department had predicted after a scorching heatwave hit the city.

Due to the extreme amounts of dust, Delhi’s air quality had become poor during the day, and has turned moderate in the evening, with the CPCB’s Rohini station recording an AQI of 150 at 8 pm.

The IMD predicts that on April 12 the city will face light rain along with general cloudy sky for Delhi. After this, the city is forecast to witness clear skies for the next couple of days.

Flight operations at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport remained severely disrupted on Saturday as the impact of Friday evening’s intense thunderstorm compounded ongoing problems caused by a runway closure that began earlier this week. Social media platforms were flooded with complaints from frustrated passengers facing long delays, poor communication, and various inconveniences. (Getty Images)

According to flight tracking data from Flightradar24, at least 498 flights were delayed on Saturday till 7.20pm. An airport official confirmed that over 40 flights had been diverted since Friday evening and more than 300 flights were delayed.

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The already challenging situation at the airport has been exacerbated by the planned closure of Runway 28/10 since April 9 for maintenance work. The airport operator had announced in February that the runway would be non-operational from April due to an upgrade to the Instrument Landing System (ILS). While this upgrade will eventually allow flights to operate in low-visibility conditions—a common issue during Delhi’s winter fog, authorities and operators appear to have been unprepared to account for the challenges in running curtailed operations.

Social media platforms were flooded with complaints from frustrated passengers facing long delays, poor communication, and various inconveniences.

“20 min dust storm in Delhi, there’s chaos everywhere. Because the airlines don’t have a system of contingency planning… zero support, communication, basic facilities, nothing… It took 15 hours to retrieve my baggage,” one user wrote.

ALSO READ | ‘Felt like a 20-minute earthquake’: Delhi-NCR residents left shaken after sudden dust storm

Another passenger tagged Air India and wrote: “…flight departed 12 hours late. There was no support from your side at Delhi Airport, all your higher authority was sleeping peacefully when we were suffering. Delay was due to total mismanagement of Air India.”

Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) were hit by gusty winds exceeding 80 km/hr on Friday evening as an intense thunderstorm wreaked havoc, causing widespread damage. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) had initially issued a yellow alert for Saturday as well, forecasting light rain with thunderstorm and lightning, but withdrew it in the latter half of the day.

At 5pm on Saturday, Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) posted on X: “Flight operations at Delhi Airport are normal, but some airlines are still affected by last night’s weather conditions. Our teams are working hard to minimise inconvenience,” and advised all flyers to check their flight status regularly for updates.

The spill-over effects appear to have persisted longer than they should have due to the runway closure. India’s busiest air terminal, Delhi is handling approximately 200 fewer flights daily since April 9 when runway 28/10 was closed for upgrades.

Aviation expert Capt. Mohan Ranganathan criticised airlines for not make adequate adjustments to account for the limited operations due to the planned runway closure. “The airlines should have ideally planned a reduced number of flight operations per day when they were informed about the unavailability of one of the major runways. However, doing so would affect their revenue. Sadly, they prefer their convenience over passenger convenience.”

Mark D Martin of Martin Consulting said the Delhi airport should have been the least affected by the closure of one runway, as it still has three others available. “The airlines seem to have not planned for the runway unavailability well,” he said.

A former airport official, requesting anonymity, explained that multiple factors contributed to the delays: “Runway 29/10 is geographically located in the middle of the airfield, which increases the time taken for aircraft to taxi. This leads to cascading delays. For instance, if an arriving aircraft lands on a runway farther from the terminal than the one currently closed, the taxi time increases. Consequently, passenger disembarkation is delayed, cleaning staff boards the aircraft later than scheduled, and the boarding of passengers for the next sector is also delayed. As a result, ground operations are severely impacted in such situations.”

While the airlines HT spoke to claimed they were working closely with the airport operator, the Airports Authority of India, and the IMD, no airline has announced any planned or advance cancellations of flights, suggesting airlines are attempting to operate all scheduled flights despite the challenging circumstances.

An airline official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that all airlines were collectively working to minimise passenger inconvenience. “Real time monitoring of flights, coordinating with stakeholders and keeping the passengers updated are some of the work that has been done from the first day of the planned maintenance leading to the runway shutdown,” he said.

An official close to the development added, “Air India flights were impacted severely on Saturday morning as well. There was a bit of congestion at the airport as several flights had been disrupted since Friday evening. Operations were mostly normal after 10 am.”