Airlines cancel more than 650 flights due to Cyclone Michaung

India’s airlines cancelled more than 650 flights between Monday and Tuesday as Chennai was ravaged by the worst rains in 80 years and Cyclone Michaung raged over Andhra Pradesh.Market leader IndiGo cancelled 550 flights, an executive said. A spokesperson for Air India said it cancelled 53 flights. SpiceJet cancelled 28 and Vistara cancelled 14, executives said.

“In light of the cyclonic storm and heavy rains in Chennai, flight operations came to a halt on 4th December 2023. At Vistara, the teams managed the situation with agility and efficiency by getting all of our aircraft out of the Chennai International Airport (MAA) well before its closure ensuring no grounding or subsequent shortage of aircraft. The team made all efforts to minimize inconvenience to customers including proactively cancelling select flights and has been in constant touch with the impacted customers to offer regular updates and various alternatives such as rescheduling or refunds, as applicable. The situation has now been stabilized and our operations to and from Chennai have resumed. Inconvenience to customers caused due to this unavoidable situation is regretted. The safety of our customers, crew and aircraft has always been of paramount importance to us,” said a spokesperson at Vistara.

Scenes of a flooded tarmac and runway at the qChennai airport was shared across social media.

By afternoon the water had subsided. The airport is likely to reopen soon. There are 1,500 passengers inside terminal .

According to latest media updates, 11 people succumbed to the cyclone which had its landfall in Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday.