The India Meteorological Department has warned of heavy rain, strong winds and thunderstorms across Delhi-NCR, including Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurugram and Faridabad, as the monsoon reaches its seasonal peak.

Low-lying areas of the capital region are likely to face waterlogging as the active weather system moves through, according to the alert.

Thunderstorms combined with gusty winds of this nature have repeatedly caused flight delays and airline advisories at Indira Gandhi International Airport earlier this monsoon season.

The IMD also warned of landslide and flood risk in Kerala’s Wayanad hills due to continuous heavy rain, with coastal cities Kochi, Bengaluru and Mangalore expected to see winds of roughly 50 km/h.

Additional heavy rainfall alerts were issued for parts of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Odisha.

Travellers flying through Delhi are advised to check flight status directly with their airline and build in extra time to reach the airport while the alert is in force.

The southwest monsoon typically remains active over North India through August and into early September, meaning further rounds of thunderstorm and heavy-rain alerts affecting Delhi-NCR flight operations remain likely in the coming weeks.

IGI Airport, one of India’s busiest, has repeatedly seen carriers such as IndiGo, Air India and SpiceJet issue passenger advisories during comparable spells of monsoon thunderstorms and high winds earlier this season.

In Kerala, the IMD flagged landslide and flood risks for the Wayanad hills from continuous heavy rain, while Kochi, Bengaluru and Mangalore face coastal winds of around 50 km/h.

Uttar Pradesh cities including Lucknow, Kanpur and Gorakhpur, along with Bihar’s Patna, Gaya and Muzaffarpur, Madhya Pradesh’s Bhopal, Indore and Jabalpur, and West Bengal’s Kolkata and Siliguri were also placed under heavy rainfall alerts.

Airlines typically advise passengers to check flight status directly through official apps or websites and to allow extra travel time to the airport during active thunderstorm warnings, given the potential for air traffic control-driven delays.

Photo by Quintin Soloviev, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0

IndiGo will start direct flights between Guwahati and Deoghar from August 4, 2026, the airline announced.

The service will run twice a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays, connecting Northeast India with Deoghar, a pilgrimage town in Jharkhand.

Under the released schedule, flight 6E 7709 departs Guwahati at 9:25 am and arrives in Deoghar at 11:20 am, while flight 6E 7710 departs Deoghar at 11:40 am and reaches Guwahati at 1:35 pm.

IndiGo said timings are local and subject to regulatory approval, with tickets bookable through its website, mobile app, or authorised travel partners.

Deoghar Airport is about 9 km from the Baba Baidyanath Dham temple, one of twelve Jyotirlingas in Hinduism, and the new route is meant to benefit pilgrims from Assam and elsewhere in the Northeast.

The direct flight removes the need for connecting services between the two regions, though the twice-weekly schedule offers less flexibility than a daily route.

Deoghar Airport began commercial operations in recent years as part of a wider push by India’s civil aviation ministry to improve connectivity to smaller cities and pilgrimage centres under its regional connectivity scheme.

Guwahati’s Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport serves as the main aviation hub for Assam and much of Northeast India, connecting the region to major domestic and select international destinations.

Deoghar Airport, located about 9 km from the Baba Baidyanath Dham temple, was built primarily to ease pilgrim access to the Jyotirlinga shrine, one of twelve such sites revered in Hinduism.

The new route eliminates the need for connecting flights for pilgrims and travellers based in Assam or elsewhere in Northeast India who wish to visit Deoghar, IndiGo said.

Twice-weekly frequency limits scheduling flexibility compared with daily services, a constraint that could be tested during peak pilgrimage periods such as the Hindu month of Shrawan, when visitor numbers to Baidyanath Dham surge sharply.

Photo by Md Shaifuzzaman Ayon, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Air India will start flying a new seasonal Mumbai-Toronto route with three weekly flights from October 25, 2026, running through March 26, 2027, the airline announced on Saturday, August 2, 2026.

The route will initially use upgraded Boeing 777-300ER aircraft with redesigned cabins, featuring eight First Class suites with privacy doors, 40 fully flat Business Class seats, 280 Economy Class seats and onboard WiFi.

The new flights add close to 2,000 seats a week between India and Canada, and will switch to the newer Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner from January 2027 as more aircraft become available.

Air India has also started flying brand-new Boeing 787-9 aircraft on its Delhi-Toronto route, with seven of its 10 weekly Delhi-Toronto services now operated by the Dreamliner this winter.

Chief commercial officer Nipun Aggarwal said Canada ‘remains one of Air India’s most significant international markets because of strong people-to-people ties,’ describing the new route and aircraft as evidence of the airline’s North American focus.

The moves lift Air India’s total weekly India-Canada capacity to 20 flights for winter 2026-27, with a 71% jump in premium seat availability and roughly 4,400 extra monthly seats.

The winter 2026-27 network expansion takes Air India’s total weekly India-Canada capacity to 20 flights, alongside a 71% increase in premium seat availability and about 4,400 additional monthly seats.

Air India already operates 10 weekly Delhi-Toronto flights, seven of which are being flown by the new Boeing 787-9 this winter, with the remaining three switching from the 777-300ER to the Dreamliner from January 2027.

By January 2027, Air India expects all of its Toronto services from both Delhi and Mumbai to be operated with new or freshly upgraded cabin interiors across both aircraft types.

Toronto Pearson International Airport is Canada’s busiest airport and a key hub for connections onward to other North American cities, making it a strategic anchor point for Air India’s Canada network.

Photo by AVA Navigate, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0