Airlines
Thunderstorm alert for Delhi-NCR as monsoon peaks, flights could be delayed
The IMD has warned of heavy rain, thunderstorms and strong winds in Delhi-NCR as the monsoon peaks, conditions that have previously triggered flight advisories at IGI Airport.
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