Passengers stranded as 135 flights cancelled at Delhi Airport following Op Sindoor
Hours after the Indian armed forces struck nine sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir as they launched Operation Sindoor, flight operations across North India were impacted on Wednesday, including at Delhi Airport, which witnessed at least 135 flights being cancelled.
As many as 65 arriving and 66 departing flights at Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA), the country's largest and busiest airport, have been cancelled, a source said. Two departing and two arriving international flights were also cancelled. The foreign carriers that cancelled some of their services from the airport included American Airlines.
'All operations across terminals and all 4 runways at Delhi airport, continue to function normally. However, there have been impact on some flights due to changing airspace,' Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), which operates the IGIA, said in a post on X.
Flight tracking data also showed no civilian aircraft activity north of Delhi, where some of the sensitive airports close to the Pakistan border are located.
IndiGo and Air India cancelled all their flights scheduled to and from airports in North India, including Srinagar, Jammu, Amritsar, Leh, Chandigarh, Bikaner, Jodhpur, and Dharamshala till May 10. Air India also cancelled all its flights to and from Jammu, Srinagar, Leh, Jodhpur, Amritsar, Bhuj, Jamnagar, Chandigarh and Rajkot till May 10.
Air India further said that two international flights to Kashmir were diverted to Delhi.
India's strikes also led to most international flights overflying Pakistan around that time diverting away and steering clear of the Pakistani airspace.
The cancellations and delays left many passengers stranded at the airport.
Adnan Manzoor (18) was on his way home to Srinagar on Wednesday morning after a gruelling three years of NEET preparation in Kota, Rajasthan's examination coaching hub.
'I reached the airport at 7 am for my flight to Srinagar, which was scheduled for 2 pm. Only then did they inform me that the flight was cancelled, but they said there is a flight in the evening,' Manzoor said.
Kalicharan (45) has been at the airport with his wife and two children since 5 pm on Tuesday. 'We reached Delhi early Tuesday by train from Chhatarpur in Madhya Pradesh. Spent as much time as we could have at the train station and then came to the airport in the evening. Since then, we have been tossing and turning and trying to sleep here,' said Kalicharan, who was going to Leh to work at a construction site.
'They are saying there might be a flight tomorrow afternoon, so we will wait for that,' said his son Karan Neherwal (18), as he lay on a bedsheet spread on the floor outside Terminal 1.
Nirmal Rai (38) is also on his way to Leh. 'We have been here since midnight… We don't have any choice, we don't have anywhere to stay,' said Rai, who is with a group of 13 labourers heading to Leh for the construction of a road. The group hails from Dumka in Jharkhand.
'I am just concerned about getting a refund,' said Chhiga Ahirwar (48), also from Chhatarpur in MP. He, too, is travelling to Leh with another group of 15 labourers.
Param Lal (50), one of the members of his group, is making frantic calls to contractors he knows in Delhi to find a place to stay. 'How will I find a place for 15 people to stay? If it is a family of three to four, then it is fine, but who will keep 15 people in their house?' Lal asked.
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