Delhi: 90+ flights cancelled, 200+ delayed at IGIA

Flight ops at Delhi's IGI Airport affected; 90+ flights cancelled and 200 delayed due to airspace restrictions amid India-Pakistan tensions.

Flight operations continued to be impacted at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport on Thursday, as more than 90 domestic and international flights to and from Delhi were cancelled and over 200 delayed due to airspace restrictions amid escalating tensions between India and Pakistan, officials aware of the matter said.

CISF personnel participate in the civil defence security mock drill at Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi on Thursday. (Reuters)

An airport official said that these cancellations were for flights scheduled between 8am and 2pm, with a total of 79 domestic flights cancelled. These included 46 departures and 33 arrivals into the Capital. Further, 11 international flights were also impacted, with five departures and six arrivals cancelled.

Data from the flight-tracking website FlightRadar24 showed that over 200 flights were delayed, with an average delay time of 18 minutes.

On Wednesday, a total of 21 airports in north and northwest India — close to the India-Pakistan border were shut, hours after Indian carried out precision strikes on terror infrastructure on nine sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmi under Operation Sindoor. These airports will remain shut until May 10.

At the Delhi airport, 135 flights were cancelled and over 300 were delayed on Wednesday. The cancellations included 65 domestic arrivals, 66 departures and four international flights.

In a statement on the social media website X at 10am on Thursday, the Delhi airport operator said that changing airspace conditions were still impacting flights.

“All operations across Delhi Airport’s terminals and its four runways are proceeding as usual. However, changing airspace conditions have impacted some flights. Passengers are advised to contact their respective airlines for the updated flight information,” it said.

IndiGo, among other airlines on Wednesday, had announced that a number of its flights are being cancelled until May 10.

“In line with directives from aviation authorities regarding airport closures, we’re in the process of cancelling all flights to and from Srinagar, Jammu, Amritsar, Leh, Chandigarh, Dharamshala, Bikaner, Jodhpur, Gwalior, Kishangarh, and Rajkot until 0529 hours on May 10. We are closely monitoring the situation, and further schedule adjustments across other sectors may follow,” it had said.

Meanwhile, among those impacted at the Delhi airport was AAP’s MLA from Burari, Sanjeev Kumar. He posted on X that his flight from Delhi to Darbangha – scheduled to depart at 10.30am was delayed by over three hours. “...The boarding of the flight was completed at 10.15am, but I was inside the flight for three hours,” he said. The flight eventually landed in Darbangha at around 4pm.