Light Rain, Thundershowers Expected In Delhi, Flights Affected

Delhi residents woke up Wednesday morning to a partly cloudy day, with the minimum temperature settling at 11.4 degree Celsius, one notch above the season's average. The maximum temperature is likely to hover around 24 degrees Celsius, the Indian Meteorological Department said.

Light rain or thundershowers by the night are to be expected, the Met department said. At least 14 Delhi-bound trains were delayed because of low visibility caused by fog.

"Predicted bad weather" was among the reasons for as many as 30 IndiGo flights being cancelled from across major airports. Flight cancellations will continue in the coming days, the airline said in a statement.

"IndiGo is slightly adjusting its flight schedule in the coming days by approximately 30 flights per day. This is in order to stabilize the network and operations impacted due to various ongoing NOTAM and predicted bad weather in the coming days," the statement read.

NOTAM, or notice to airmen, is given to pilots and include information on potential hazards on a flight route.

Parts of Delhi and neighboring areas were hit by hailstorm and heavy rains last week.

Another reason for flight cancellations was the on-going pilot shortages, according to news agency Press Trust of India.

Disruption in flight operations were caused by the hailstorm and heavy rain last week, when over 30 flights were diverted from the Delhi airport, an airline official said. Parts of Delhi and neighboring areas were hit by a hailstorm last week, the first in nearly a decade.

The bad weather caused issues with the aviation-watchdog mandated flight duty and time limitation (FDTL), wherein the pilots and cabin crew can't fly for more than a certain number of hours.

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