Following the May 10 ceasefire announcement, the government of India on Monday lifted the Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) for each of the 32 airports which were shut for civilian use. These airports were to remain shut from May 9 to May 14.
Airports in Jammu, Srinagar, Leh, Jodhpur, Amritsar, Bhuj, Jamnagar, Chandigarh, Rajkot and all other affected airports can operate like previously. Each of these Airports Authority of India (AAI)-owned or AAI-controlled airports are Indian Air Force (IAF) bases also.
A blackout was reported in Amritsar on Monday forcing an IndiGo flight from Delhi to head back to its origin. Flightradar24 showed that the 6E2045 turned back and landed in Delhi. IndiGo did not comment on the matter.
Going by the ticket booking page on the portals, airlines were yet to open bookings for each of these destinations. While Chandigarh, Srinagar and Amritsar had flight connectivity from Monday itself, others like Rajkot, Bhuntar (Kullu) had no booking options.
“These airports are now fully operational for civil aircraft movements with immediate effect,” AAI said in a release. “Air India is working towards progressively commencing flights to and from Jammu, Srinagar, Leh, Jodhpur, Amritsar, Bhuj, Jamnagar, Chandigarh and Rajkot. We are working on bringing operations at these airports back to normal,” said an Air India release.
IndiGo, the country’s largest carrier, said, “We will progressively commence operations on the previously closed routes. As services gradually return to normal, there may still be a few days and last-minute adjustments.”
“Our teams are actively working to resume normal flight operations at the earliest,” said a statement from SpiceJet.
An estimated 1,000 cancellations in flights has happened since the launch of Operation Sindoor in the early hours on May 7. With an average of 170-180 flight cancellations a day, this is just under 5% of the total number of departures in a day.
Since the start of May, India’s average daily scheduled departures have been between 3,800 and 3,900, according to London-based aviation analytics company Cirium.