CHENNAI: Day time commercial flights from Chennai began today with the first Air India flight to Port Blair taking off this morning.
An Air India flight from Delhi is expected to land at 1:30 PM.
This is the first service after operations were stopped in the wake of rains. The Airports Authority of India (AAI) had decided to shut the airport till today in the wake of battering rains that left the facility unusable.
AI fligts to Hyderabad and Delhi are also scheduled to operate today.
34 aircraft of various airlines were stranded at the airport when the Airports Authority of India (AAI) decided to shut the airport.
The AAI had yesterday declared the runway fit for operating technical ferry and relief flights after an inspection by its staff.
Four ferry flights that were parked at Chennai Airport departed for Delhi, Mumbai and Port Blair yesterday while one Cargo flight Singcargo B747 departed for Singapore via Bangalore.
On an average, Chennai airport handles 320 landings and departures. As many as 20 international airlines operates from the airport apart from most of the domestic carriers.
The Air India flight for Port Blair took off at 10:49 AM with over 130 passengers.
The flight will return to Chennai from there it will be operated to Hyderabad, an Air India official said.
Besides that, one flight is being operated from Delhi and back.
The flight will arrive in Chennai at around 1345 hours and will depart for Delhi around 1445 hours, the official said.