Poor visibility in North hits flights to & from Lohegaon

PUNE: The inclement weather, fog and

poor visibility

in the North affected flight services to and from the city for the second consecutive day on Monday.

At least six flights — three departures and three arrivals — were cancelled during the day. Several flights were also delayed.

A SpiceJet flight from Pune to Jodhpur and another from Kolkata to Pune had to be cancelled. The same flight, which was set to fly from Pune to Kolkata at 3.20pm, was also cancelled.

Besides, an IndiGo flight set to land in Pune from Bengaluru at 3:25pm was cancelled. Another IndiGo flight, supposed to reach Pune from Bengaluru at 9.50pm, was cancelled.

A GoAir flight, which was supposed to arrive in Pune from Delhi at 8.25pm on Monday, was cancelled. The same filght which was scheduled to fly at 8.55pm from Pune to Delhi was also cancelled. The airline confirmed the development to the passengers through a text message.

Over 15 flights, mostly to and from Delhi, suffered moderate to heavy delays. “I reached the airport from Hinjewadi for a 6am flight to Delhi. Once I reached the airport and completed the check-in process, we were told that the flight has been delayed by an hour-and-a-half. We had no options but to wait,” IT professional Sameer Dixit told TOI.

SpiceJet had put out an advisory for its passengers on Monday, mentioning that the poor visibility in Delhi, Varanasi and Kishangarh was likely to impact flight movements.

A GoAir advisory stated that flight operations to and from Delhi might be affected. IndiGo too stated that flight services were impacted due to fog and poor visibility in the northern region.

Related to the cancellation of the SpiceJet flight (SG8185) from Pune to Jodhpur, scheduled to take off from Pune at 11:35am, an airline representative said, “The flight stands cancelled due to the consequential impact of bad weather in Delhi.” The representative cited the same reason for the cancellation of a Pune to Kolkata flight.

Four arrivals and departures, including two to and from Delhi, were affected between 3am to 6am at

Lohegaon

Airport. Between midnight and 3am, four departures, including two to Delhi, were delayed.

Three flights from Pune to the national capital between 6am and 9am were delayed by almost two hours. Two flights reaching the city from Delhi during the period were also delayed.

Heavy delays were reported in the time slot between 9am and 12noon, with seven arriving flights, including two from Delhi and one from Chandigarh, getting delayed. In terms of departures, five flights were delayed and one was cancelled.

Passengers also suffered during the slot between noon and 3pm with six departures getting heavily delayed. These included flights to Chandigarh, Delhi, Jaipur and Ahmedabad. Five flights set to arrive at the city were also delayed in the same time slot and a Kolkata-bound aircraft was cancelled.