Sunday, 25 May 2025
Sunday, 25 May 2025
A dust storm accompanied by gusty winds disrupted flight operations at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport on Friday, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded overnight.
More than 200 flights were delayed, and at least 50 had to be diverted from their scheduled destinations, according to sources. The average delay in departures stretched to over an hour, reported NDTV.
The situation triggered widespread frustration among passengers, many of whom took to social media to share their experiences from the airport terminals.
A person posted on X on Saturday, “Extremely saddened to witness the state at Delhi airport. Full chaos, stampede like situation, flights delayed by hours and hours, staff clueless about what’s happening, no help to aged people, zero help to the passengers to give them directions. What’s happening!”
Another user posted a video and wrote, “AirIndia This is the current situation at T3 Delhi Airport. Poor management led to stampede, there's literally no Air India staff to help the Travellers, no response on the flight details. It's been like this for almost 5hrs now.”
Air India replied, “Dear Mr. Panchumarthy, we are concerned to learn this. Please be assured our team is trying to minimize the hassle. We sincerely appreciate your patience and understanding. You may connect with our airport team directly for any real time assistance.”
The airline had also issued a public advisory on X. “Poor weather, caused by heavy thunderstorms and gusty winds, has affected flight operations across parts of northern India. Some of our flights to and from Delhi are being delayed or diverted, which is likely to impact our overall flight schedule. We are closely monitoring the situation and are doing our best to minimise the disruption. We advise our guests to check the latest status of their flights before heading to the airport.”
“@airindia @MoCA_GoI @JM_Scindia Most mismanaged, misinformed world class international airport, New Delhi. #INDIRAGandhi.. worse than Bus Stand,” one user posted.
Passengers of other airlines also suffered a similar fate.
Another wrote, “@IndiGo6E the 6E 2198, indigo flight from Kolkata to Delhi got rescheduled 6 times from evening. @IndiGo6E are you taking the passengers for granted?? People are already 6hrs late for this, are you going to refund the amount now??”
IndiGo responded, “Hi, our goal is always to get our customers to their destination on time; however, there are times when unexpected situations arise. In this case, it was a cascading effect of bad weather in Delhi followed by air traffic congestion on the incoming aircraft.”
On Saturday, IndiGo also issued an update: “For the latest updates on your flight status, please visit (link). If your flight is cancelled, you can explore alternate flight options or claim a refund here (link).”
Aviation officials told ANI that the dust storm led to many flight diversions and cancellations, creating a backlog that contributed to the chaos at the airport.
“After the dust storm, many flights were diverted and cancelled, and this caused inconvenience to passengers waiting for their flights at Delhi airport. The diverted flight took time to reach Delhi, and this led to a rush at the airport,” one official said.
Delhi Airport had also issued a general advisory: “Due to the inclement weather conditions in Delhi, some of the flights at Delhi airport are impacted. Passengers are advised to contact their respective airlines for the latest flight updates. We sincerely regret any inconvenience caused.”
Several passengers described spending the night at the airport as their connecting flights were either diverted or repeatedly delayed.
“We had a connecting flight from Srinagar to Delhi to Mumbai at 4 pm. Our flight was scheduled to land in Delhi around 6 pm but was diverted to Chandigarh due to a dust storm. It was then flown back to Delhi at 11 pm,” NDTV quoted a passenger onboard the Air India flight as saying.
“We were then asked to board another flight in Delhi for Mumbai at 12 am. We sat in the aircraft for about 4 hours and were then made to deboard again and go through the security check again. It's 8 am, and we are still waiting at the airport. Our flight has not yet taken off,” the passenger added.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) recorded wind gusts of up to 74 kmph at IGI Airport on Friday evening.
The weather system caused trees to be uprooted across several parts of Delhi-NCR, leading to traffic congestion and power outages.
Power supply disruptions were reported in parts of North Delhi due to falling trees and branches.
The IMD issued an orange alert on Friday, advising residents to stay indoors, secure doors and windows, and avoid non-essential travel.
On Saturday morning, Delhi recorded a minimum temperature of 19.0 degrees Celsius. Thunderstorms and rain were predicted later in the day.
