Chaos at Mumbai Airport as Main Runway Closure Due to Bad Weather Hits Flight Operations

Chaos ensued after the temporary closure of the main runway at the Mumbai airport because of “inclement weather” as passengers were forced to wait Sunday night.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) predicted rain and thunderstorm in Mumbai on Monday as cyclone Biparjoy turned into an ‘extremely severe cyclonic storm’, and is expected to make landfall on the western coastline on June 15.

IndiGo Airlines took to Twitter and expressed regret for the inconvenience caused while replying to a passenger’s tweet complaining about a delayed flight.

“The flight to Mumbai got delayed for the fourth time (because of operational issues) still there is no clear communication. Such chaos affects the schedule of the passengers which should be valued. Really pathetic. At least passengers should be given other flights,” the passenger tweeted.

IndiGo responded by saying “it is never our intention to disrupt the plans of our passengers” and promised to resolve the issue soon.

As passengers’ complaints piled up, Air India also put out a statement saying “inclement weather conditions and the temporary closure of Runway 09/27 at the Mumbai airport have resulted in delays and cancellation of some of our flights”.

“Inclement weather conditions and the temporary closure of Runway 09/27 at the Mumbai airport, in addition to other consequential factors beyond our control have resulted in delays and cancellation of some of our flights. We regret the inconvenience caused to our guests, as we make all effort to minimise the disruptions,” Air India tweeted.

Many passengers took to Twitter and complained about flight delays and cancellations.

Cyclonic storm ‘Biparjoy’ intensified into an “extremely severe cyclonic storm” and is likely to hit south-southwest Gujarat and adjoining Pakistan coasts.

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