NEW DELHI: An IndiGo flight from Delhi to Amritsar abruptly turned back midway and returned to Delhi on Monday evening following the sudden imposition of a blackout at Amritsar airport. Flights to and from Amritsar had been non-operational since 7 May due to Operation Sindoor and were only cleared for travel on Monday.
Sources in the Ministry of Civil Aviation confirmed to this newspaper that an IndiGo flight en route to Amritsar was forced to return to Delhi.
Flight No. 6E 2045 had departed from Delhi’s Terminal 1D at 8:26 pm (a delayed departure by 16 minutes) and was scheduled to reach Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport in Amritsar approximately 50 minutes later. According to flight-tracking websites, after flying for around 30 minutes, the aircraft made a sharp U-turn and landed back in Delhi at 9:21 pm.
It is understood that a blackout was suddenly reimposed in Amritsar around 9:00 pm by the local administration, prompting the flight to turn back.
The aircraft in question was an Airbus A320neo. IndiGo has not yet disclosed the number of passengers on board, and a statement from the airline is awaited.
Amritsar airport was among the 32 airports cleared by the Airports Authority of India on Monday to resume commercial operations. Flight 6E 2045 was one of the first commercial services scheduled to operate at the airport following the resumption.
Normal flight operations continue to and from Jammu airport, Civil Aviation Ministry sources confirmed.
A senior ministry official told reporters late on Monday night, “All restrictions have been withdrawn for airports and air routes north of Delhi as of 10:50 pm.”
However, IndiGo issued a statement at 11:38 pm announcing that all its flights to and from Amritsar, Jammu, Leh, Rajkot, Srinagar, and Chandigarh have been cancelled for Tuesday, 13 May, citing operational reasons.
In a related development, an Air Arabia flight from Delhi to Sharjah (Flight G9 466) was re-routed to avoid flying over Amritsar and Lahore, according to data from the flight-tracking website FlightAware. The aircraft eventually reached its destination 55 minutes behind schedule.
