13 hours Ago
Pune: Low visibility because of dense fog impacted many flights, along with trains, while one of the two inline baggage screening systems at the new terminal building malfunctioned, leaving hundreds of passengers hassled at the city airport and railway stations. A total of 22 flights — 15 departures and seven arrivals between 6am and noon — were delayed. Most of them were delayed by two hours or more.
An Air India Express flight coming to Pune from Chennai was diverted to Hyderabad because of low visibility. Confirming the flight disruptions, Pune airport director Santosh Dhoke said, "Some planes were delayed owing to visibility issues. Airlines and airport staffers are assisting passengers in every possible way," he told TOI.
A source in Air India Express confirmed that low visibility at the Pune airport resulted in diversion of its Chennai-Pune flight (IX-1675). It departed from Tamil Nadu capital at 5.40am.
According to FlightRadar24, the aircraft circled there for a long time after reaching the Pune airspace and then proceeded to the Hyderabad airport. Mahesh, one of the flyers, said, "We were told that the flight was getting diverted because of low visibility in Pune. They could have taken it to Mumbai or Ahmedabad.
" Around 22 trains from Pune, including inter-city trains and Pune-Lonavla locals were delayed on Saturday because of fog in the morning. Deccan Queen, Deccan Express, Mahalaxmi Express, and local trains between Pune and Lonavla were stopped for around an hour because of fog. The trains reached their destinations late by almost two hours.
Baggage problem Cut to the airport. One of the five baggage belts at the airport broke down amid flight delays because of fog, resulting in chaos. Prachi Tiwari, a flyer, wrote on X, "Landed in Chandigarh only to find out that our luggage didn't make it because of a belt malfunction in Pune.
No updates and now we are stranded without essentials." Another flyer wrote on X, "Utter chaos at Pune airport today (Saturday). Baggage check-ins not working and flights held up.
" Another flyer, requesting anonymity, said, "There were huge queues at the check-in counter in the early morning hours. It took close to 30-35 minutes for us to check in. At one point, we started panicking.
IndiGo has the highest number of flights from the airport, Naturally, the queue at their counters was unending. An official said there was a problem with a sensor, which caused one of the machines to malfunction." Airport director Dhoke said, "Some technical issue happened, but now it has been fixed.
Both the systems are working smoothly. INSET Unique boarding pass to first guest Air India Express commenced its direct Pune-Bangkok flight from Saturday. The airline presented the first guest of the inaugural flight with a commemorative boarding pass at Pune airport.
Scheduled to depart at 8.40am, it flew out for Bangkok at 11.54am because of fog.
The flight will operate three days a week — Tuesday, Thursday and Saturdays. The airline has also announced the launch of bi-weekly direct flights from Pune to Mangaluru from January 4..
