Chennai airport shuts ops for 7 hours

 Chennai airportC Shivakumar @ CHENNAI:
Chennai Airport operations will be closed from 12.30pm to 7pm due crosswinds following Cyclone Fengal. The decision was taken following a meeting with top airport officials after the 11am weather bulletin was released by the metrology department.

"In view of Cyclonic Storm ‘Fengal’, Stakeholder Airlines have raised  a Safety concern due to estimated higher crosswinds as predicted by IMD ( above 35 knots). After stakeholders consultation it was decided by Airport Management to close down Airport Operations with effect from 1230 hours to 17pm," Chennai airport spokesperson said.

Flight schedules have been impacted with airlines diverting flights to other cities like Bengaluru, while Indigo Airline has temporarily stopped operations at Chennai airport due to bad weather.

Earlier, Indigo had informed that there will be no arrival and departure flights at Chennai Airport. They have temporarily stopped operations due to bad weather in Chennai.

Sources said that the Indigo flight from Abu Dhabi which was supposed to land at 8.10am was diverted to Bengaluru. Similarly, an Air India Express flight to Singapore was canceled due to technical issues.

Meanwhile, Sri Lankan Airlines from Chennai to Colombo which was set to depart at 9.40am has been cancelled for the day due to bad weather.  Many flights like those from Port Blair to Chennai and Delhi to chennai have been diverted to Bengaluru.