Cyclone Biparjoy effect: Chaotic scenes at Mumbai airport as flights cancelled, delayed

As Cyclone Biparjoy nears Indian shores after intensifying into an extremely strong cyclonic storm in the Arabian Sea on Monday, flight traffic at Mumbai airport has taken a major hit due to the inclement weather leading to long delays and stranded passengers.

Cyclone Biparjoy is expected to hit Saurashtra coast and Gujarat's Kutch region on June 15 and IMD has issued an orange alert for the region. Mumbai witnessed high tide in the morning and heavy rain with gusty winds during the day.

Chaotic scenes were witnessed at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, with people waiting for up to four hours to board their flights due to the temporary closure of the main runway. Passengers from various airlines took to Twitter to express their dismay at the delay.

The Indigo passenger claimed that they were waiting for more than 5 hours due to "unavailability of 'Captain/Pilot'". The flight, which was supposed to take off on Sunday at 11 p.m., was delayed until 4:40 a.m.

In a tweet late Sunday night, Air India informed that "closure of runway 09/27 at Mumbai airport and other factors beyond control due to inclement weather have resulted in cancellation and delay of some of its flights". Indigo Airlines' Twitter feed was full of people complaining about flight delays, some of them for the fourth time, originating from Mumbai. Another passenger shared a video of long lines of passengers lining up at the check-in counters in Terminal 2.