Bush's Hyderabad visit hits 15 flights

As the skies over this city were virtually declared no-fly zone, airlines have rescheduled their flights between 8.30 am and 2 pm.

Flights to and from Hyderabad were badly hit on Friday with at least 15 flights rescheduled in view of US President George W Bush's visit to the city.

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As the skies over this city were virtually declared no-fly zone for aircraft other than Air Force One and planes and choppers linked to Bush, airlines have rescheduled their flights between 8.30 am and 2 pm.

Air Deccan cancelled its Hyderabad-Chennai flight and rescheduled flights to Vijayawada, Nagpur, Ahemdabad and New Delhi. Jet Airways, Indian Airlines, Spice, Jet, Air Sahara and other airlines rescheduled their flights to Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and New Delhi.

The flights, which were clashing with the timings of landing of Air Force One of President, have been either advanced or delayed to fly several hours after his departure. For instance Hyderabad-Delhi flight of Air Deccan which was scheduled to depart at 5.30 pm, will now take off at 7.20 pm.

Dozens of passengers were caught unawares as the rescheduling was done at the eleventh hour.

Unprecedented security arrangements at the airport also caused inconvenienced to passengers. Entry of visitors was banned last evening itself.