With the reopening of 32 Operation Sindoor-affected airports in northern and western India from Monday, a few flights to and from some of these airports operated on Tuesday, marking what appears to be the beginning of resumption of regular commercial flight operations in the affected areas.
While IndiGo and Air India had on Monday announced operations from some of the affected airports from Tuesday, most of those flights were cancelled overnight after precautionary blackouts were enforced in parts of Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir on Monday night following suspected drone activity.
Notwithstanding those cancellations, airports like Srinagar, Jammu, Bathinda, Adampur, Shimla, and Hindon did see some commercial flight operations from Air India Express, Air India, SpiceJet, Alliance Air, and Star Air, according to flight tracking data and information from airline sources.
For instance, Air India Express operated flights on Hindon–Bengaluru, Jammu–Delhi, Jammu–Srinagar, and Srinagar–Delhi routes on Tuesday, in line with the resumption plan it announced on Monday. Its parent Air India also restarted operations between Srinagar and Delhi.
Air India had initially announced that it would operate flights to and from Srinagar, Jammu, Leh, Jodhpur, Amritsar, Bhuj, Jamnagar, Chandigarh, and Rajkot from Tuesday, but later cancelled most of these flights, with the exception of the Srinagar flights. SpiceJet also operated flights between Srinagar and Delhi on Tuesday. Other examples include regional airline Alliance Air operating flights on the Delhi-Shimla and Delhi-Bathinda routes, and Star Air operating on the Adampur (Jalandhar)-Hindon route.
According to industry sources, scheduled civil flight operations at the affected airports are expected to be fully restored over the next few days in a phased manner, provided India-Pakistan tensions do not spiral again into a military conflict. Civil Aviation Minister K Ram Mohan Naidu suggested airlines to resume their normal schedules across the affected airports from Thursday. All airlines “responded positively” to the suggestion, Naidu said in a post on social media platform X.
In addition to the affected routes that it re-operationalised on Tuesday, Air India Express plans to restart flights on the Hindon–Mumbai route from Wednesday, followed by the reinstatement of other suspended flights, including international services from Amritsar, from Thursday. SpiceJet said it will resume its special Haj flights from Srinagar from Wednesday. Air India and IndiGo are also expected to resume operations at various affected airports from Wednesday.
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Following the ceasefire understanding between India and Pakistan, New Delhi on Monday cancelled the temporary closure of 32 airports in parts of northern and western India, making them available for regular civil flight operations. Amid the major escalation in tensions with Pakistan last week, these airports—close to the India-Pakistan border or housed at key Indian Air Force bases—were shut for civil aircraft operations till 5:29 am on May 15 (Thursday). The closure of these airports was leading to cancellation of over 300 flights a day, industry sources indicated. Over 160 flights a day of the country’s largest airline IndiGo alone were cancelled due to these airport closures.
The affected airports included Srinagar, Jammu, Leh, Amritsar, Chandigarh, Ambala, Ludhiana, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Jaisalmer, Uttarlai, Rajkot, Bhuj, Jamnagar, Dharamshala, Bathinda, Patiala, Pathankot, Adampur, Shimla, Kishangarh, Hindon, Porbandar, Mundra, and Kandla, among others. Barring a few, majority of these airports are located at defence airfields, with some see only a handful of commercial flights a day. Amid the military conflict between India and Pakistan, the 32 airports were closed in order to keep civilian air traffic away from potential harm.
Air India and IndiGo on Monday announced a progressive resumption of their flights at some of these airports, but later cancelled most of them. The airlines said that the flight cancellations were in view of “the latest developments” and keeping passenger safety in mind, without elaborating further. Notably, the cancellations were announced following unexpected precautionary blackouts in parts of Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir on Monday night. In fact, Indigo had announced the resumption of Delhi-Chandigarh, Delhi-Jammu and Delhi-Amritsar flights from Monday evening itself. While the Delhi-Jammu and Delhi-Chandigarh flights operated without a hiccup, the airline’s Delhi-Amritsar flight turned back to the Capital midway after a precautionary blackout was enforced in Amritsar and a few other areas of Punjab.