Fog disrupts Chennai airport operations: Over 40 flights delayed; some diverted to Bengaluru and Tirupati

CHENNAI: More than 40 flight operations were delayed at the Chennai airport early on Tuesday due to poor visibility caused by dense fog. Many aircraft had to circle in the sky while awaiting clearance to land, while over 5 flights were diverted to other airports.

Flights from London (British Airways), Muscat (Oman Air), Kuala Lumpur (AirAsia), Mumbai (Akasa Air), and Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, and Coimbatore (IndiGo) were redirected to Bengaluru as they could not land in Chennai, according to Flightradar24 data.

An Air India flight from Bengaluru attempted to land but had to return to its origin location after holding patterns above Chennai airport for nearly an hour.

An IndiGo flight from Hyderabad was diverted to Tirupati after a failed attempt to land in Chennai, while an IndiGo flight from Pune also landed in Tirupati after circling over Chennai for a long time. A similar situation occurred with a Chennai-bound IndiGo flight from Kolkata which later landed in Tirupati.

Other flights that were made to make rounds while awaiting clearance and later landed after significant delays included Air India Express flights from Muscat and Kuwait, an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa, IndiGo flights from Mumbai and Abu Dhabi, and an Air India flight from Mumbai.

Departing flights to Delhi, Madurai, Coimbatore, Tuticorin, Vijayawada, Port Blair, London, Singapore, and Dubai were also delayed for up to four hours. They later departed from Chennai once the conditions became normal.

In a statement, officials from Chennai airport said, "Considering safety of flight operations, we delayed some flights and diverted others to nearby airports. We are deeply saddened by the inconvenience caused to passengers, but since this was weather-related, there was little we could do," they explained.

Chennai airport became the second most disrupted airport in the world between 6 am and 8 am IST on Tuesday in terms of operations, with an average departure delay of 92 minutes, going by the Flightradar24 tracking portal.

Both Air India and IndiGo had earlier today issued a travel advisory for the dense fog conditions, advising travellers to check their flight status.

(With inputs from Bureau)