Flights resumed at Srinagar airport on Tuesday after a six-day halt, bringing cheer to those planning Haj pilgrimages and many others desperately awaiting air travel.
Kashmir was cut off by air and road for nearly a week. Flights to and from Srinagar could not operate because of the India-Pakistan hostilities. Adding to the woes was the closure of the Srinagar-Jammu national highway because of land and mud slides for more than a week. The highway remains closed.
Flight operations resumed on Tuesday after the aerodrome closure notices to airmen (Notam) were revoked on Monday. Airport officials said the first flight from Delhi landed in Srinagar at 1.30pm. “We are operating a total of eight flights, including arrivals and departures,” said Javed Anjum, the director of Srinagar airport.
A SpiceJet spokesperson said the airline resumed its operations on Tuesday. IndiGo, however, cancelled flights to and from Srinagar, Jammu, Amritsar, Chandigarh, Leh and Rajkot for the day.
On Monday, the Airports Authority of India had said that the 32 airports that had been temporarily closed, including Srinagar, were available for civil aircraft operations with immediate effect. Haj flights will start operating from Wednesday, officials said. In a statement, SpiceJet said it would resume its Haj 2025 operations from Srinagar, operating two flights to Medina using wide-body Airbus A340 aircraft, each accommodating 324 passengers.
Haj pilgrims had a tough time in the past few days as authorities could operate only one flight on May 4 when the first batch of 178 pilgrims from Jammu and Kashmir left for Saudi Arabia. Haj flights between May 7 and May 12 were cancelled. Shujaat Ahmad Qureshi, the executive officer of the J&K Haj Committee, said Haj flights from Srinagar would restart on Wednesday.
This year, 3,622 pilgrims from Jammu and Kashmir and 242 from Ladakh will be performing the Haj. Airports were shut on May 7 following Indian strikes in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir.
Schools and colleges in Kashmir, except those in the border districts, reopened on Tuesday. Educational institutes in Kupwara and Baramulla districts, and those in the Gurez sector of Bandipora, remained closed.
Chief minister Omar Abdullah visited Tangdhar near the Line of Control and pledged government help and construction of additional bunkers in the border areas. He also met the victims of Pakistani shelling and said their resilience was inspiring. Omar said everyone wanted a ceasefire between India and Pakistan except a few television anchors “sitting far away in Delhi and Noida”.