Tamil Nadu: Bhogi smoke distrupts flight cancellation, delays at Chennai airport

Eight flights have been cancelled at Chennai Airport while ten flights are operating with delays ranging from one hour to three hours on Wednesday due to the Bhogi festival and smoke haze fog and precautionary measures taken by airlinesHowever there has been no major inconvenience to passengers as the airlines had already informed them in advance about these cancellations and delaysSince the expected level of smoke haze and fog did not occur at Chennai Airport this year flight operations have not been severely affectedDisruptions to flight operations at Chennai Airport during the Bhogi festival have been recurring for several yearsAt the peak of such disruptions in 2018 as many as 73 departing flights and 45 arriving flights totalling 118 flight services were affected due to Bhogirelated smokeIn 2024 due to Bhogi smoke and fog 27 arriving flights and 24 departing flights a total of 51 services were affectedAnticipating similar disruptions during the Bhogi festival in 2025 the Airports Authority of India took precautionary measures by rescheduling flights arriving at and departing from Chennai Airport between 400 am and 800 amAccordingly the departure and arrival times of approximately 30 flights were revised and passengers were informed well in advance via text messagesBhogi festival which falls a day before the Pongal festival is traditionally observed by people burning old and discarded household items on the streets outside their homesSimilarly in residential areas surrounding Chennai Airport such as Meenambakkam Gowl Bazaar Pozhichalur Pammal Anakaputhur Thoraipakkam Manapakkam Nandambakkam and other localities old plastic waste tyres and other discarded materials are burned in the early hours of the morning as part of Bhogi celebrationsThis results in heavy smoke engulfing the runway area of Chennai AirportAlong with this earlymorning fog further reduces visibility sometimes to the extent that the runway itself becomes invisible due to dense smoke and fogIn this context the Bhogi festival is being observed todayAs a result given the possibility of disruptions from the early hours of the day from the burning of waste materials in the residential areas surrounding Chennai Airport it was announced yesterday that some flights would be cancelled and others would depart with delays as a precautionary measureAccordingly four departing flights have been cancelled today the flight to Pune scheduled at 305 am the flight to Coimbatore at 635 am the flight to Mumbai at 715 am and the flight to Delhi at 800 amSimilarly four arriving flights have also been cancelled today the flight from Delhi scheduled to arrive at 520 am the flight from Mumbai at 635 am the flight from Pune at 710 am and the flight from Coimbatore at 910 amLikewise the release stated the flight from Chennai to Vijayawada scheduled at 540 am is departing at 840 am after a delay of three hours the flight to Thoothukudi scheduled at 610 am is departing at 910 am after a threehour delay the flight to Visakhapatnam scheduled at 620 am is departing at 730 am the flight to Muscat scheduled at 715 am is departing at 1015 am the flight to Andaman scheduled at 740 am is departing at 840 am the flight to Bengaluru scheduled at 830 am is departing at 930 am and the flight to Tiruchirappalli scheduled at 910 am is departing at 1010 am all with delaysSimilarly arriving flights are delayed the flight from Singapore scheduled to arrive at 555 am is arriving at 820 am the flight from Muscat scheduled to arrive at 630 am is arriving at 900 am and the flight from Kuala Lumpur scheduled to arrive at 700 am is arriving at 840 amThus at Chennai Airport today a total of eight flights have been cancelled while ten flights seven departures from Chennai and three arrivals to Chennai are operating with delays ranging from one hour to three hoursHowever notably as of 700 am today no significant smoke haze or fog has been reported in the Chennai Airport areaThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever