Delhi-bound Air India flight from Indonesia diverted to Varanasi due to bad weather

An Air India flight from Bali to Delhi was diverted to Varanasi’s Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport due to bad weather in the national capital, an official said on Wednesday.

The flight later departed for Delhi the same night after the stop at Varanasi on Tuesday.

Puneet Gupta, Director of Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport, Varanasi, said the Air India flight AI 2146 had to be diverted as poor weather conditions over Delhi severely reduced visibility, making it unsafe for the aircraft to land.

“The flight, carrying 187 passengers, safely landed at Varanasi airport,” Gupta said, adding that “all necessary passenger amenities were ensured during the delay.

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The plane was cleared for take-off and flown back to Delhi later in the night.

A separate Delhi-Bali flight was diverted back to the national capital on Wednesday due to a volcanic eruption near Bali airport.

The flight safely landed back in Delhi and all passengers have disembarked, Air India said in a statement.

“Air India flight AI2145 on June 18 from Delhi to Bali was advised to air return to Delhi due to reports of volcanic eruption near destination airport Bali, in the interest of safety,” it said.

On Tuesday, AI 2146 was scheduled for departure from the Denpasar International Airport in Bali, Indonesia at 10.30 am (local time) and was to land at the Indira Gandhi International Airport around 2.30 pm.

According to flight tracking website FlightRadar24, the Airbus A321 plane landed in Varanasi instead of Delhi around 3.50 pm. The flight was near the Delhi-UP border when it was diverted to Varanasi, it showed.

Air India has faced successive cancellations and diversions since a London-bound flight operated by it crashed in Ahmedabad shortly after take-off on June 12. Over 270 people, including those onboard the plane and on the ground, died in the crash.

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On Tuesday, Air India cancelled seven international flights, taking the total number of cancellations by the airlines since the Ahmedabad crash to over 80.

Flight operations at the Delhi airport faced several disruptions on Tuesday, with 14 diverted flights — six to Bhopal, three to Chandigarh, two to Amritsar, one each to Ahmedabad, Varanasi and Lucknow.

Over 400 flights were delayed and some flights were cancelled at the airport on Tuesday, as per data from Flightradar24.

In a post on X, Air India said that due to inclement weather conditions in Delhi, “our flight operations are getting impacted with some diversions”.