Heavy rainfall and technology outage aftermath delay 1,129 flights

At least 1,129 flights were delayed at country’s three major airports, Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru on Monday as airlines grappled with heavy rain and aftereffect of global IT outage to bring order back on the runways.

Heavy rain lashed Mumbai on the second day running on Monday, affecting not just airline operations but also the local train services.

This adverse weather, coupled with the lingering impact of outage of Microsoft apps and services, continued to significantly impact the punctuality of flights across the country. An airline executive said the flight operations would get normalised in a day or two.

According to flightradar24, at least 1,129 flights were delayed at Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru on Monday.

Air India stated on X that flights to and from Mumbai are being affected by continued heavy rains. The airline advised its passengers to start early for the Mumbai airport, as slow traffic and waterlogging might delay movement.

IndiGo on Monday morning said that Mumbai is going to see increased rainfall, particularly until Monday night, with more anticipated in the coming days.

India’s largest carrier then advised the passengers to monitor the status of their flight and plan their travel carefully due to potentially waterlogged roads.

At least 485 flights (302 departures and 183 arrivals) were running late on Monday at the Mumbai airport, according to flightradar24. The Mumbai airport, which is India’s second busiest, handles about 870 daily scheduled flights. 

At least 488 flights (347 departures and 141 arrivals) faced delays on Monday at the Delhi International Airport. India’s busiest airport handles about 1,260 daily scheduled flights. 

Meanwhile, at the Bengaluru International Airport, which handles about 690 daily scheduled flights, at least 156 flights (110 departures and 46 arrivals) faced delays on Monday.

On Sunday, the Mumbai airport had to suspend its runway operations for two short periods -- first for eight minutes between 12.12 PM and 12.20 PM and then for 15 minutes between 1 PM and 1.15 PM -- due to low visibility amid adverse weather conditions, sources said.

They added that no such suspension was needed on Monday as visibility at the Mumbai airport was sufficient.

On Friday, a faulty update by cyber security firm CrowdStrike led to the outage of Microsoft apps and services across the world for several hours.

About 400 flights were cancelled in India on Friday and Saturday due to this issue. About 300 out of those 400 services were from IndiGo.
 

No airline reported a substantial number of cancellations due to the outage on Sunday and Monday but delays remained widespread as the aftereffects persisted, sources mentioned.