Mumbai rains: Flights delayed, some diverted to Gujarat

Incessant rains hit Mumbai for the fourth straight day on Tuesday, flooding vast areas of the city, throwing traffic out of gear on key arteries and affecting trains and flights services in the Maharashtra capital.

Heavy rains accompanied by strong winds badly affected flight operations at the Mumbai airport on Tuesday.

Flights lined up to take off despite heavy rains in Mumbai on Tuesday. (HT Photo / Pramod Thakur) (Pramod Thakur/HT PHOTO)

Though the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) said there was an average delay of 35 minutes, passengers said some flights were delayed for over two hours. (Live updates)

The landing of an aircraft when it was on its final approach to the runway was aborted and some flights were diverted to other airports, officials said.

The Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) said there were not many flight delays. “There were seven go-arounds, three diversions and 35 minutes delay in flight operations till now,” said a MIAL spokesperson.

Officials from the Airport Authority of India (AAI) said the situation in the afternoon was better than in the morning.

An airport official said that some flights were asked to land in the closest airports, either in Ahmedabad or Vadodara.

The heavy rains also forced the Juhu aerodrome to stop all operations of fixed-wing aircraft.

AAI officials said that though there was waterlogging in parts of the aerodrome, the main runway was clear. Helicopter operations were not officially shut.

The Juhu airport that has two runways is used by private charters and by ONGC Ltd to ferry personnel by helicopters to the offshore oil rigs at Bombay High.