With the monsoon arrive flight delays

The arrival of monsoon may have come as a relief to Mumbaikars, but it has also brought grief to air travellers. While several flights were delayed by almost an hour on Monday at the Mumbai airport, six flights were diverted to Ahmedabad.

Girish Giri, who took a Spicejet flight from Chennai to Mumbai, had to spend almost two hours at Chennai airport before boarding his flight. “Due to bad weather conditions in Mumbai, our departure was delayed by two hours and finally the flight took off at 10.15pm,” said Giri. “It was a long tiresome journey. The flight was supposed to arrive in Mumbai at 9.50pm, but landed at 12.30am.”

The heavy downpour also spoilt S Ganeshan’s commute from Delhi to the city. A journey that would have, on any other day, taken him one hour forty five minutes to complete, was extended to six hours. The Kingfisher flight on which Ganeshan was travelling left Delhi at 9.30pm instead of the scheduled 8.25pm. “We reached Mumbai around 11pm, but due to air-traffic congestion the pilot was asked to do a go around,” said Ganeshan. During the go around, which took more than 30 minutes, the pilot felt the need to refuel and the flight had to be diverted to Ahmedabad.

“At Ahmedabad, the plane was refueled, which took about 30 minutes, and then we took off for Mumbai. The flight finally landed in Mumbai around 2.45am on Tuesday,” added Ganeshan.

Both arrivals and departures were delayed by 45 minutes to about 3 hours. “Weather is a very tricky issue over which we have no control. Bad weather coupled with congestion will definitely lead to delays of over an hour. We inform the passengers through our call centres and via SMSes. But, in case it rains badly, we request passengers to enquire with the airlines about the status of the flight,” said an airline spokesperson.

The monsoon normally also pushes up the cost of operation for airlines by more than 10%. “Due to go-arounds and flight diversions during monsoon, we burn a lot more fuel,” said an official from a private airline. For instance, a go around of 20 minutes costs the airline anywhere between Rs60,000 to Rs1 lakh depending on the type of aircraft. “Moreover, if the flight gets diverted and there are no signs of weather clearing up we have to provide passengers with accommodation. Everything together pushes up operating costs by more than 10 percent during monsoon,” added the official.