Since yesterday, more than a thousand flights including those of IndiGo to and from Chennai have been cancelled as a result of Cyclone Michaung’s severe rains, which closed the city airport. Following the airport’s closure yesterday, Vistara halted 10 flights from Chennai, and IndiGo was forced to cancel 550 flights throughout India. After the rain ceased, Chennai is now having difficulty draining the floodwaters and estimating the damage from the intense downpour.
Following the infiltration of floodwater into the airport yesterday, Chennai airport closed its runway and grounded all aircraft. It started running again this morning. The airport in Visakhapatnam is closed at the moment since the storm is headed towards Andhra Pradesh. At midday, IndiGo began operating again out of Chennai; nonetheless, it reported cancelling sixty flights today. Vistara has also started operating again, both to and from Chennai.
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IndiGo makes a statement on the Cancelled Flights:
Flyers who are impacted will receive a waiver for flight cancellation and rescheduling, according to a statement made yesterday by IndiGo, which has exceeded the 2,000 daily scheduled flight milestone. There are fifteen of the planes that were grounded during yesterday’s airport closure parked in Chennai.
According to Vistara, it has contacted the impacted fliers and made accommodations. “The team made all efforts to minimize inconvenience to customers including proactively cancelling select flights and has been in constant touch with the impacted customers to offer regular updates and various alternatives such as rescheduling or refunds, as applicable.”
Air India has waived rescheduling fees for flights departing yesterday and today. During the closure of Chennai airport, Air India had to cancel 33 return flights nationwide. Today, it also cancelled twenty return flights. Chennai was completely inundated with rain on Sunday night due to Cyclone Michaung. In addition to aircraft, numerous trains were cancelled, with full refunds given to the passengers.
The cyclone is making landfall close to Bapatla on the coast of Andhra Pradesh. Readers are advised to stay inside their homes.
