Mumbai airport shuts down flight ops for over 4 hrs
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) in Mumbai had to close its flight operations for threeand-a-half hours on Wednesday due to adverse wind patterns caused by Cyclone Nisarga.
According to airport operator Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL), CSMIA handled six arrivals and 24 departures in total (including commercial, repatriation and Vande Bharat flights) on Wednesday.
Indigo and Vistara cancelled majority of their flights operating to and from Mumbai due to the weather warning. A spokesperson from MIAL said, “CSMIA saw a total of 20 scheduled flights which include 12 departures and eight arrivals. CSMIA connected to 12 sectors which were operated by five airlines —Air India, Airasia India, Indigo, Spicejet and Goair.”
“In consultation with AAI (Airports Authority of India), considering the strong crosswinds, it has been decided that no arrivals and departures will take place between 14:30-19:00 hours,” read the MIAL statement. Flight operations however resumed at 6pm.
In the afternoon, an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Riyadh to Mumbai had to be diverted to Ahmedabad and two Emirates cargo flights returned to Dubai. A Jaipur-pune flight was diverted to Surat.
Meanwhile, a Fedex (cargo) flight from Bengaluru to Mumbai overshot the runway at CSMIA around 12pm. A senior airport official said, “No injuries or damage was caused to the aircraft in the overshooting . It was a minor incident.”
An MIAL spokesperson said the Fedex flight 5033, an MD11 aircraft, was towed away from the runway and there were no disruptions in flight operations.
Flight operations at Juhu airport were closed from 12pm and will remain shut till 8am on Thursday.