logo
Air India flight from Kochi veers off runway in Mumbai amid heavy rain

Air India flight from Kochi veers off runway in Mumbai amid heavy rain

India Today5 days ago
An Air India flight from Kochi veered off the runway while landing at Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport early Monday morning, as heavy rains battered the city overnight.Flight AI 2744, an Airbus A320 (VT-TYA), was arriving from Kochi when it experienced what officials described as a "runway excursion" shortly after touchdown. Visuals from the scene showed partial damage to one of the aircraft's engines.advertisementAccording to an Air India spokesperson, the aircraft managed to taxi safely to the designated bay despite the incident, and all passengers and crew disembarked without any injuries.
The airline confirmed that the aircraft has been grounded for detailed checks."Flight AI2744, operating from Kochi to Mumbai on 21 July 2025, experienced heavy rain during landing, resulting in a runway excursion after touchdown. The aircraft taxied safely to the gate, and all passengers and crew members have since disembarked. The aircraft has been grounded for checks," the spokesperson said.Meanwhile, a Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) spokesperson said that there was minor damage reported to the airport's primary runway, 09/27, where the flight landed."All passengers and crew are safe. There was minor damage reported to the airport's primary runway, 09/27. In order to ensure continuity of operations, Secondary Runway 14/32 has been activated," the spokesperson said.The incident came as Mumbai recorded intense overnight showers after days of relatively clear skies. The sudden spell caused waterlogging in several low-lying areas and led to traffic snarls across parts of the city on Monday morning, civic officials said.While no flight operations were reported to be significantly impacted apart from minor delays, authorities have advised travellers to check for updates amid forecasts of more rain in the coming days.- EndsTune InMust Watch
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Kedarnath Yatra halted as Uttarakhand hit by landslides, flash floods
Kedarnath Yatra halted as Uttarakhand hit by landslides, flash floods

India Today

time7 hours ago

  • India Today

Kedarnath Yatra halted as Uttarakhand hit by landslides, flash floods

Heavy rainfall in Uttarakhand has triggered a series of landslides and flash floods, severely disrupting the Char Dham Yatra and affecting local life across multiple districts. The Kedarnath yatra was also temporarily halted after the path was blocked due to a landslide. In Rudraprayag, the pedestrian route from Gaurikund to Kedarnath was shut around 3.30 am on Saturday after a landslide blocked the path with falling debris and boulders. Authorities have halted movement on the stretch, and work is underway to clear the Saturday morning, the Rumsi stream in the Bedu Bagad area of Agastyamuni overflowed due to the relentless rain. Several houses, hotels, and parking areas near the Kedarnath highway were flooded. The gushing water, carrying mud and debris, created flash flood-like conditions. Residents said the stream swelled without warning and pushed a heavy flow of silt and rubble into nearby homes and hotels along the highway sustained damage, and many vehicles were buried under debris. Two-wheelers were reportedly submerged, and efforts are ongoing to recover Uttarkashi, about a 100-metre stretch of the Yamunotri National Highway caved in near Phoolchatti on Friday, cutting off all vehicular Bageshwar district recorded over 74 mm of rainfall in the Kapkot block on Friday evening. Nine roads in the area were blocked due to landslides, and 57 JCB machines have been deployed for clearance and relief Tehri's Balganga tehsil, a large tree collapsed on the road near Nageshwar Saud on Saturday morning after overnight rainfall weakened its has obstructed the Uttarkashi-Kedarnath Char Dham motor route, disrupting movement for Kanwar pilgrims, Char Dham yatris, and local Meteorological Department has issued an orange alert for heavy rain in Dehradun, Tehri, Nainital, Bageshwar, and Champawat over the next 48 hours, while a yellow alert is in place for the remaining have urged locals and pilgrims to check weather updates before travelling, as routes remain dangerous due to the continued downpour.- EndsMust Watch

Over 10 lakh flyers to US, yet no direct connect from Hyderabad
Over 10 lakh flyers to US, yet no direct connect from Hyderabad

Time of India

time7 hours ago

  • Time of India

Over 10 lakh flyers to US, yet no direct connect from Hyderabad

Representative Image HYDERABAD: Over 10 lakh passengers travel between Hyderabad and the United States every year. There are over 25 flights connecting Hyderabad to the US, operated by carriers such as Lufthansa, Cathay Pacific, British Airways, Emirates, Etihad, Qatar Airways, flydubai, Kuwait Airways, and Air India. But all of them are hopping flights. Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) has no direct flights to any of the American states, forcing flyers from the two Telugu states to transit through Mumbai, Delhi, or other Middle Eastern or European countries to reach their destinations in the US. This has led to longer and tiring travel schedules, especially for frequent flyers. You Can Also Check: Hyderabad AQI | Weather in Hyderabad | Bank Holidays in Hyderabad | Public Holidays in Hyderabad For instance, passengers flying from Hyderabad to Dallas spend nearly 24 hours in transit, with layovers in cities like Dubai, Doha, Frankfurt, or London. Direct US-India routes generally take 12 to 18 hours, depending on the destination. Air India had kicked off a non-stop weekly service between Hyderabad and Chicago in Jan 2021, but it was discontinued in less than a year. The direct flight had a travel time of around 16 hours and 45 minutes. Layovers add to fatigue 'The Hyderabad to Chicago route remains one of the busiest international routes, but direct services were discontinued unexpectedly. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Struggling With Belly Fat? Try This at Home Home Fitness Hack Shop Now Undo In the absence of nonstop options from Hyderabad or Bengaluru, travellers mostly transit via Delhi,' said Abdul Majeed Faheem, chairman, Travel Agents Federation of India (Telangana and AP). Layover points like Dubai, Doha, Abu Dhabi, Frankfurt, London Heathrow, and Mumbai have become common for US-bound travellers from Hyderabad, despite increasing demand for direct services. 'Non-stop flights would ease travel for those visiting their loved ones in the US or coming home during holidays. Right now, we spend 24 hours including layovers, which is tiring and inconvenient,' said R Anuroop, a techie who lives in Texas. Data from GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd shows 8.5 lakh passengers travelled between Hyderabad and the US in 2020. This grew to 10 lakh in 2024 — a 30% rise over pre-Covid levels, the highest growth among Indian metro airports. Passenger traffic is spread across the East Coast, West Coast, and Central US, with about 75% of travellers heading to cities like Dallas, New York, Newark, Chicago, San Francisco, Atlanta, Seattle, Boston, Los Angeles, and Washington DC. The demand spans business travellers, students, leisure flyers, and those visiting friends and relatives. The GMR Group attributes the lack of direct connectivity to the short-term unavailability of wide-body aircraft and restricted airspace due to geopolitical issues. Talks on with the airlines 'Given the strong passenger volume across multiple segments, airlines have been evaluating direct routes. We are in active talks with Indian and US carriers to establish direct flights,' said GHIAL CEO Pradeep Panicker. Insiders say airlines prefer to concentrate US routes through Mumbai and Delhi to retain load viability, despite rising demand in Hyderabad. GHIAL also pointed out that Hyderabad-US is the largest unserved origin-and-destination market. On average, 1,462 passengers travel to the US daily, equivalent to five widebody aircraft. 'Establishing direct connectivity would boost travel frequency. Current demand supports a strong three-days-a-week service. Peak business travel occurs from Feb to Aug, followed by high student movement,' Panicker added.

How Indian airlines are benefiting from Look East Policy
How Indian airlines are benefiting from Look East Policy

Mint

time9 hours ago

  • Mint

How Indian airlines are benefiting from Look East Policy

For years, successive governments have had the 'Look East' policy to work with the South East Asian nations and offer a counterbalance to China's influence in the region. In 2014, this 'Look East' was converted to 'Act East' with a focus on economic connections, defence co-operation, and most importantly, people-to-people connect. The people-to-people connect part has greatly benefited the airlines, with the winners being Indian carriers in some cases, while foreign carriers in others. The change has been drastic from pre-COVID times to today and has been fuelled by the need from ASEAN to replace or hedge Chinese tourists, who remained away for a longer period due to restrictions in place by the Chinese government on travel. This meant that tourism-heavy economies like Thailand started offering incentives like free visas for Indians to travel, leading to a spurt in tourist traffic. Overall, the India-ASEAN market has been a mix of new connections, increased services and a growth like no other. Data obtained from Cirium, an aviation analytics company, exclusively for this article, shows that there has been a giant leap in connectivity, with Indian carriers also benefiting from this. In December 2019, the last full month of operations in the world before COVID started taking its toll, India did not have a connection with Brunei, Laos, the Philippines and Cambodia among the 10 ASEAN nations. Today, Royal Brunei operates a thrice-a-week service to Chennai; Air Cambodia flies twice a week to Delhi; Air India is starting flights to Manila in September while Laos remains the only blank spot right now. Among all the countries and connectivity, the India-Vietnam connectivity has seen a new high. From just 21 flights a week in December 2019, the connectivity has now gone up to 82 weekly flights. However, only 21 out of these are operated by Indian carriers — 14 by IndiGo and seven by Air India. The rest are being operated by the two Vietnamese carriers, Vietnam Airlines and VietJet. Their network in India has spanned to Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kochi, Delhi and Hyderabad to connect to Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, after having tried a few other variations. Overall, the seats went up nearly four times, and frequencies have gone up three times. While the India-Vietnam sector has seen the foreign carriers rule over Indian ones, the story is exactly opposite to Indonesia. By December 2019, all the Indonesian carriers had pulled out of India where multiple variations like non-stop and one-stop flights via Kuala Lumpur or Bangkok had been tried to connect Jakarta and Bali to points in India. On the other side of COVID, IndiGo and Vistara (later Air India) have 21 weekly frequencies to Indonesia, with IndiGo operating a daily flight to Jakarta from Mumbai and to Bali from Bengaluru while Air India operates to Bali from Delhi. The India-Malaysia market has remained more or less the same, with a slight drop. There are 42,124 weekly seats each way across 222 frequencies between India and Malaysia. While IndiGo reduced its presence at Kuala Lumpur, it added flights to Penang and Langkawi from Chennai and Bengaluru respectively, while Air India returned to Kuala Lumpur. The Malaysian carriers have shrunk 11 per cent even though they have tried multiple options having maxed out on seats to metros due to bilateral restrictions. The India-Singapore market comprises 57,611 weekly seats across 247 flights this August, a slump of 10 per cent compared to 2019. The Singaporean side has shrunk by 8 per cent since 2019, while the Indian side has remained constant. August also sees seasonal variations to Singapore and often sees drop in capacity by seats or frequencies. The biggest gainer for seats in the market between pre-COVID and today has been Thailand. This also is the biggest market among the three nations by seats on offer. There was an addition of 35 weekly frequencies and a growth of 10 per cent in connectivity between India and Thailand. The connectivity recalibrated with new points being connected, like Surat-Bangkok, Pune-Bangkok, Bhubaneshwar-Bangkok, Bengaluru-Krabi, Kolkata-Phuket, among others. The Indian carriers grew close to 25 per cent in the India-Thailand market, taking a fair share even after the fall of Go Air, while the Thai carriers shrank about 5 per cent. The total seats on offer each week between India and Thailand stands at 71,350. The people connect is driven by affordability and opening up of new connections, making it far easier to visit tourist destinations like Krabi, Phuket, Langkawi, Penang or Bali. The total cost, often a true measure of holiday expenditure, dictates the travel plans and Indonesia, Vietnam or Thailand stand out compared to the Maldives, where there was a diplomatic row last year, or European destinations which not only are expensive but also have challenges and lead time issues for visa. The strategic dependence on Indian tourism bodes well for the country as a whole, even when we struggle to attract as many foreigners and the international traffic is dominated by Indians travelling abroad.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store