At around 6:56 AM, the wind speed reached 75 km/h, making it difficult for the planes to land. Due to these reasons, around 100 flights were delayed between 6 am to 10 am.
New Delhi: Flight operations were affected at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport from around 6.30 am on Monday. 19 flights were diverted to nearby airports due to strong winds and thunderstorms. At around 6:56 a.m. the wind speed reached 75 km/h, making it difficult for the planes to land. Due to these reasons, around 100 flights were delayed between 6 am to 10 am.
An airport official said most flights originating between 6:30 am and 9 am were diverted. However, operations returned to normal after that. While 13 flights were diverted to Jaipur, 2 to Lucknow and 1 flight to Amritsar, Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Indore. “This was largely due to inclement weather, with rain and strong winds affecting the airport. Strong winds can make it difficult to land planes, especially during thunderstorms."
The official Twitter handle of the Delhi airport also tweeted at 6:28 am, asking passengers to check their flight status. It wrote, "Due to inclement weather, flight operations at Delhi Airport have been affected. Passengers are requested to contact the concerned airline for updated flight details.
The Palam weather station at Delhi airport reported wind speed of 40 to 55 km/h between 6 am and 8 am, which increased to 50 to 75 km/h around 7 am. It said the speed of 75 km/h was recorded at the Delhi airport at 6:56 am. "Such strong winds, or wind shear, make landing difficult," an India Meteorological Department (IMD) official said. Apart from this, 27.6 mm of rain was also recorded at the airport till 8:30 am.
The flight delay started around 6 am and normalcy was restored in operations from 9 am onwards. But the delay had a huge impact, forcing people to wait at the airport for over an hour.
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