Emirates flight from Thiruvananthapuram to Dubai crash-landed and exploded on the runway on Wednesday.
Flight operations to Dubai remained affected for the second day on Thursday due to the non-availability of runway at Dubai International Airport after Wednesday's mishap involving an Emirates flight. Budget carriers--IndiGo and SpiceJet--cancelled all their flights to the gulf trade hub while Air India and Jet Airways diverted their operations from Dubai International Airport to nearby airports.
"Dubai- only wide-body aircraft allwd till 7 AM tom. AI routing thru Sharjah, Jet thru Sharjah&Abudhabi & Indigo, Spicejet cncld today," Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju tweeted on Thursday.
Operations at Dubai airport were suspended immediately after a packed Emirates flight from Thiruvananthapuram to Dubai crash-landed and exploded on the runway, shutting down one of the world's busiest airports. Dubai Airport authorities have already announced that limited flights will be allowed to operate from Dubai airport from Friday till 0730 hours on August 7.
"Due to unavailability of runway at Dubai airport, all IndiGo flights operating to and fro India stand cancelled for today," the Gurgaon-based airline said in a statement. All IndiGo passengers are requested to check their respective flight status via customer relations or Twitter/Facebook or the airline's web portal, it said.
"In accordance with the instructions from the Dubai Airport Authorities, all our flights to and from Dubai scheduled for today have been cancelled," SpiceJet said.
While IndiGo had cancelled all its flights to Dubai on Wednesday, SpiceJet diverted its aircraft to the nearby Al Maktoum, Ras Al Khaimah and Sharjah International Airports. The Emirates flight, with 282 passengers and 18 crew members on board, had departed at 10.19 AM from Thiruvananthapuram International Airport and was scheduled to land at 12.50 PM at Dubai International Airport where it met with a mishap.
Around 10 passengers were treated for smoke inhalation and burn injuries at a hospital after the accident and only one person was admitted for long-term treatment, local media had said. The incident was the most serious to date for Emirates, it being the only loss for the airline since it started operations in 1985. The Boeing B 777-300 plane which was involved in the accident was 13 years old.
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