Chennai-bound flights cancelled due to floods

All 19 Mumbai-Chennai flights on Thursday were cancelled due to water logging on Chennai runway, sources from Mumbai International Airport Limited informed. These include: 10 Jet Airways flights, 5 IndiGo flights, two of SpiceJet, and two of Go Air. According to Airport Authority of India (AAI) sources, as many as 30 aircraft have been grounded in Chennai, which is affecting availability of aircraft for all carriers across the nation.

While IndiGo has cancelled all flights operating to and from Chennai till December 5, Jet Airways has cancelled all flights to and from Chennai till December 6. As part of relief measures, Jet Airways announced a refund or re-schedule on tickets that were booked between December 1 and 4. Whereas, an IndiGo official spokesperson said, “Our staff and senior officials are deployed at Chennai airport and trying to provide all kind of help, including medical aid, food and water facilities to passengers stuck there.”

National carrier Air India will accept Air India tickets issued by AI, travel agents or portals, from and to Chennai for travel from and to the nearest airports such as Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Mangalore, Thiruvananthapuram, Vishakhapatnam, Kozhikode, Coimbatore, Trichy, Madurai, Kochi, Vijayawada and Tirupati till December 15 without additional charge. Also, no cancellation/refund charges will be levied on Air India tickets for travel to and from Chennai till December 15.

Air India also sent one Airbus 320 aircraft from Hyderabad, which took-off from Arakkonam Naval Base, to evacuate stranded passengers on Thursday. The flight evacuated 120 passengers stranded in Tamil Nadu.