Two flights diverted due to severe weather in Indore

Indore: Sudden severe weather conditions and operational scale back caused major disruptions for air passengers at Devi Ahilyabai Holkar Airport.

On Sunday afternoon, strong winds and dust storms starting around 3:30 pm forced air traffic control to halt landing due to safety concerns. IndiGo flight 6E 813 from Goa was diverted to Vadodara at 4:24 pm. Concurrently, Air India Express flight IX 2014 from Bengaluru was diverted to Ahmedabad.

Both flights returned to Indore after 6:30 pm once weather conditions stabilised, causing significant delay for travellers.

Outbound flights from the city were also delayed by approximately 30 minutes during the storm.

In another development reportedly driven by rising fuel costs and capacity management, Air India discontinued four of its daily flights between Indore and Delhi starting June 1. The reduction halves Air India’s daily operations on this route, cutting services from four daily flights to two.

The airline is offering affected passengers refunds or rebooking options on alternative flights. While the reduction is expected to increase ticket pricing pressure due to lower seat availability, Indore will maintain eight daily direct flights to Delhi through remaining carriers.

This adjustment brings the city’s connectivity to Delhi on par with its Mumbai operations, with both destinations now holding eight daily flights each, followed by Bengaluru and Ahmedabad.