Monsoon Hits Mangalore Flights

DHNS

Mangalore, 12 June 2010: For the second consecutive day, flight services were severely affected at Mangalore airport owing to incessant rain lashing Mangalore for the last 48 hours. Only two out of nine flights could land on Saturday.

The first flight of the day—Air India Express IX-812 Dubai-Mangalore which was scheduled to arrive at Mangalore at 6:30 am—was diverted to Kochi. As a result, passengers  and their kin at the airport had no choice but to wait for the aircraft to get ATC clearance to land. But that did not happen till night due to inclement weather.

The same flight was supposed to return to Abu Dhabi via Muscat (IX-817) at 9:20 am and return in the evening via Muscat to Mangalore (IX-818) at 7:05 pm and again return to Dubai from Mangalore (IX-811) at 9:35 pm.

As the flight was stranded at Kochi airport, subsequent flights were cancelled,
disappointing hundreds of passengers and their kin waiting in the airport. Similarly, the IC-179 Mumbai-Mangalore flight by Indian Airlines which was scheduled to arrive at 10:55 am did not land, but returned to Mumbai after hovering around Mangalore airport for some time.

Three more flights (two belonging to Jet Airways and one to Kingfisher Airlines) that arrived from Mumbai to Mangalore also could not land and had to return to Mumbai. Interestingly, only two aircraft belonging to Jet Airways could land in Mangalore on Saturday and both of them had come from Bangalore (8:15 am and 6:30 pm). Both these aircraft could land because they are ATR aircraft unlike the other bigger aircraft. While Air Bus operates on the Mumbai route, the Boeing 737-800 operates on West Asia route. 

When contacted, Air India Express Station Director Chellam Prasad said that due to bad weather conditions forecast by the Meteorology department in the next 48 hours, the Air India Express services has suspended all its flights on Sunday (June 13).

If all goes well and if the stranded aircraft can take off and land in Mangalore on Sunday, it will take Saturday’s Abu Dhabi-Muscat passengers. “If weather continues to be normal, then Sunday’s Dubai passengers should be able to fly,” she said.

Scheduled flights

Sunday’s flights include IX-812 Dubai-Mangalore flight (arrival at 6.30 am); IX-819 Mangalore-Bahrain-Doha flight (departure at 9 am); IX-389 Calicut-Mangalore flight (arrival at 7.55 pm); IX-389 Mangalore-Kuwait flight (departure at 9 pm); IX-820 Doha-Bahrain-Mangalore flight (arrival at 7.45 pm); and IX-811 Mangalore-Dubai flight (departure at 9.35 pm).

The Instrumentation Landing System at the Mangalore airport was not completely damaged in the May 22 air crash. Whatever little is damaged is yet to be repaired, according to sources. Poor weather conditions have added to the existing woes, said an official.