Several planes grounded as mercury soars in north India

New Delhi : An unusually intense heat wave across north India affected air travel Saturday and over half a dozen flights were disrupted in at least three cities as temperatures at runways touched a 49 degrees Celsius.

In the Indian capital where the temperature touched 44.9 degrees, the highest for this year, at least five flights of state-run Indian Airlines and private carrier Jet Airways could not take off due to the weather conditions.

"Four of our flights from Delhi to Lucknow, Chennai, Bhopal and Mumbai were affected due to the heat," Ashok Sharma, general manager (public relations) of Indian Airlines, told IANS.

"They were to leave Delhi a little after 4 p.m. but they were delayed by at least two hours. Though the outside temperature was 46.1 degrees, the runway temperature was over 49 degrees," he said.

According to the met office at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport here, the runway temperature recorded a maximum of 49.5 degrees though the air temperature at the airport was 46.1 degrees.

"Due to the weather, flight schedules were disrupted to some extent between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. In high temperature the air becomes thin and creates problems for the plane in take-off," said R.K. Jenamani, meteorological director at the IGI airport.

"During such times, planes should carry less load than its capacity. Either they have to shed some cargo, passengers or fuel but due to economic reasons they (airlines) seem to have decided to delay the flights," Jenamani added.

A. Shivanandan, general manager (corporate communications) of Jet Airways, said: "One of our flights from Delhi to Bhopal was affected due to the rising mercury. We sent all the passengers in our other flight to the same destination."

Two Spicejet flights, one from Jammu to Delhi and another from Varanasi to Delhi, were also affected due to the unrelenting heat wave.

While the airport of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh recorded a maximum temperature of 42 degrees Celsius, the mercury climbed to 46 degrees at Jammu, the winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir.

"We have not suffered any problem in Delhi but two of our flights from Jammu and Varanasi were disrupted. The heat wave and narrow runways at the two airports were to blame for it," said Ajay Jasra, chief public relations officer of Spicejet.