Massive chaos as 9 airports briefly closed in northern India
A red alert has been sounded at other major airports in the country, including one in Hyderabad.
New Delhi: There was massive inconvenience and chaos for thousands of passengers traveling by air on Wednesday due to a massive cancellation of flights in northern India, with flight operations at nine airports initially being shut down, but aviation regulator DGCA later declared that operations at these nine airports have resumed “as of now”.
These airports are Srinagar, Jammu, Leh, Pathankot, Amritsar, Shimla, Kangra, Kullu Manali and Pithoragarh.
A red alert has been sounded at other major airports in the country, including one in Hyderabad.
Various airlines like Air India, Jet Airways, Qatar Airways and Singapore Airlines announced on Wednesday that they were rerouting their flights as Pakistan had closed its airspace in the wake of escalating tensions with India following air strikes.
This was seen in the context of the Pakistan Air Force violating Indian airspace. But the DGCA on Wednesday later said operations at the nine airports had resumed “as of now”.
A DGCA official was quoted by news agencies as saying: “As of now, operations to these airports have resumed.”
Meanwhile, instructions have been given to the CISF personnel operating scanners and those frisking passengers with hand-held metal detectors and door-frame metal detectors, to be extra vigilant while screening flyers at the entrances.
Three flights from RGIA in Hyderabad to Amritsar, Chandigarh and Dehradun, were cancelled on Wednesday morning.