Bhubaneswar: Taking note of the extremely severe cyclonic storm Fani heading towards the Odisha coast, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Thursday announced the cancellation of all flights to and from Bhubaneswar for a day.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation in a circular on Thursday evening to all the airlines said flight operation from the airport will remain suspended for 24 hours beginning midnight of May 3 following the DGCA directive. It said flight operations will resume only after clearance from the air traffic control.
Flight operations in Kolkata will also remain suspended from 9.30 PM on Friday till 6 PM on May 4.
The Biju Patnaik airport handles about 50 airlines a day, operated by Air India, IndiGo, GoAir, Vistara, AirAsia India and Air India’s subsidiary Alliance Air.
As the cyclonic storm will make landfall near Puri coast on Friday morning, the AAI has cancelled all IndiGo flights on Friday due to the inclement weather and to ensure the safety of the passengers. However, the flights will be resumed from Saturday, the sources added.
Meanwhile, Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu tweeted urging all airlines to offer assistance for rescue and relief operation to in view of the cyclone which is expected to landfall in Odisha on Friday morning.
All airlines are requested to offer all assistance for rescue and relief operations in view of #CyclonicStormFANI All relief material should be airlifted to be delivered to officially designated agencies We all in #aviation sector must rise to occasion.Controll room being set up
— Chowkidar Suresh Prabhu (@sureshpprabhu) May 2, 2019
