Air Pollution In Delhi Grounds Air India’s Bhubaneswar Flight

New Delhi: Air India on Sunday cancelled its evening flight from Delhi to Bhubaneswar as air pollution in the city has significantly reduced visibility.

An Air India official told Odisha Bytes that flight number AI 473, which was scheduled to leave from T3 terminal of IGI airport at 6.40 pm has been cancelled.

The state-run carrier has cancelled three other flights from Delhi to Patna, Bengaluru and Vijayawada.

A spokesperson of the Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) added that departure timings of 14 other Air India flights have been revised.

Some private carriers are also reported to have revised departure timings of their services, the details of which are awaited.

Earlier, DIAL has issued a statement saying 37 flights to Delhi were diverted to cities such as Jaipur, Amritsar and Lucknow between 9 am and 1 pm. They included an Air India flight from London and a private carrier from Bahrain.

“This is one of the worst air pollutions that we are witnessing in recent times. It has reached a point where we are confronted with visibility issues,” an Air Traffic Control officer at IGI airport told Odisha Bytes.

The officer feared that low visibility could lead to bunching of flights, causing further delays and more cancellations. “I do not see any chances of visibility improving unless there is favourable breeze or rain,” he said.

The IGI airport handled close to 1000 departure and landings every day, making it the second busiest airport in the country.