Monday, March 16, 2009

Flights to north-east disrupted due to dust storm

Flights of all airlines, including Air India, Jet Airways, Kingfisher and Indigo, to Guwahati could not land here today due to a severe dust storm in the city, which is experiencing a dry spell for over four months.
The situation was compounded as the Instrumental Landing System (ILS) was not functional at the Gopinath Bordoloi Airport here.

The ILS was shifted to a new location at the airport due to an ongoing construction work. The system was expected to be functional from March 26, airport sources said.

Air India sources said IC229 flight from Kolkata to Guwahati at 11 AM and IC879 from Delhi to Guwahati at 1.40 PM could not arrive here due to poor visibility.

Another flight from Kolkata to Silchar, which was expected to land at 1 PM in Silchar was cancelled due to similar dusty conditions there, the sources said.

Kingfisher flight IT4569 from Kolkata to here was diverted to Agartala and put on hold there, while IT4561 to Lakhimpur in Upper Assam was cancelled, airline sources said.

Jet Airways' 9w201 Mumbai-Kolkata-Guwahati flight which was scheduled to arrive here at 11.30 AM, 9w601 Delhi-Guwahati scheduled to arrive at 12.20 PM could not land, while S2311 Delhi-Guwahati-Dibrugarh and s2363 Kolkata-Guwahati-Imphal were put on hold