Cyclone Vardha: Chennai airport shut down, flights diverted
As rains began lashing the city and its suburbs since Sunday night, flights were operated, though delayed by a few hours, till 6 am on Monday.
Chennai: As Cyclone Vardha blew with wind speeds up to 150 kmph pounded the metropolis, the only domestic and international airport in Chennai was shut down on Monday bringing flight operations to a standstill even as more than two dozen flights were diverted to nearby cities.
A total of 27 flights were cancelled since Monday morning and nearly a dozen flights were diverted to other airports like Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Coimbatore and Tiruchy even as several flights taking off from the Chennai Airport were delayed by a couple of hours before it was shut down completely.
As rains began lashing the city and its suburbs since Sunday night, flights were operated, though delayed by a few hours, till 6 am on Monday. The situation turned for the worse after the intensity of the rain increased. The first flight to be diverted was a flight from Muscat, Oman. The flight, which was to land at the Chennai Anna International Airport, was diverted to Hyderabad and two flights from Mumbai to the city were diverted to Bengaluru.
With the intensity of the rains and the wind speed increasing hour by hour, the Airport Director, Chandramouli, called an emergency meeting after which it was decided to close the runway for operations till 3 pm. As the situation did not get any better after 3 pm, the suspension of operations was extended till 6 pm and later till 9 pm.
Closing down of the airport and suspension of services caused severe inconvenience to fliers who were stranded at the departure terminal of both domestic and international airports. Some were seen quarrelling with airport staff demanding answers on why the operations were suspended without any prior notice.
The last time when the airport’s runway was closed for operations was in December 2015 when heavy rains lashed the city on December 1. The airport was shut for 5 consecutive days from December 1 night to the afternoon of December 6 last year. Airport sources said flights, which are usually docked at the Chennai Airport, were also sent to nearby airports as a precautionary measure.