Kolkata Airport Suspends Flight Operations As Cyclone Remal Approaches Landfall

Kolkata: With Cyclone Remal set to make landfall in Bengal on Sunday night, the authorities of Kolkata airport have suspended flight operations for 21 hours from 12 pm to Monday 9 am in view of the possible impact of cyclonic storm. Nearly 400 flights, arrival and departure, in both international and domestic sectors would not operate to and fro the airport during the flight suspension period, said an Airports Authority of India (AAI) spokesperson.

This includes 170 domestic tentative departures and 26 international tentative arrivals, officials said.

The precautionary measure was taken after a meeting of the stakeholders of the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International (NSCBI) Airport here on Saturday, the official said.

This was done during the meeting as per the Met department report. It said that heavy wind with speeds more than 50 to 60 knots and gusting up to 70 knots. One knot is equivalent to 1.852 km per hour.

“In view of cyclone Remal's impact on the coastal region of West Bengal, including Kolkata, a meeting was held with the stakeholders and it has been decided to suspend flight operations from 1200 IST on May 26 to 0900 IST on May 27 due to predicted heavy winds and heavy to very heavy rainfall in Kolkata,” NSCBI Airport Director C Pattabhi said in a statement.

A meeting was convened by the Kolkata airport director on Friday also with all the stakeholders including AAI, Met department, air traffic control (ATC), communication, navigation and surveillance (CNS) and others in view of the cyclone. According to a top AAI official, this is perhaps the first time that the weather conditions en route both for aircraft and passengers have been considered so that fliers could get proper time to reach their respective destinations after landing here.

“Similarly, no flights will come or depart from Kolkata after 12 noon on Sunday and it is well ahead of the cyclone’s landfall time. So no aircraft, departing and arriving, would encounter very bad weather en route,” the official explained.

Other standard safety-related procedures – such as lowering high mast lights, putting away all equipment at safer places and shifting vehicles inside hangers - are being carried out. Besides, mooring of smaller aircraft will have to be completed also, the official said.

Passengers face inconvenience

Passengers complained that the airlines did not inform them about the cancellation of their flights through email or registered phone number. Some of them demanded hotel costs and food allowance from the airline.

Arnab Tarafdar, one of the relatives of the passenger, who had come to the airport to drop off her grandmother, Meera Nandi complained that her grandmother, who is an aged woman, was asked to wait and then informed about the cancellation of her flight.

"My grandmother (Meera Nandi) was asked to wait. After some time she was called to the counter and said that the flight was overbooked and she would not get a seat. She was asked to come tomorrow because all flights later in the day have been cancelled owing to the cyclone. She is an aged woman. Now she has to go back and come again tomorrow," said Arnab Tarafdar.

Another passenger, Avinash Talukdar said that he had checked out of his hotel at 5 am and came to the airport only to know that his flight had been cancelled. Talukdar demanded hotel costs and food allowance from his airline and is also exploring legal ways to make such demands.

Remal intensifies into severe cyclonic storm

Cyclone 'Remal' intensified into a severe cyclonic storm and is likely to make landfall between Bangladesh and adjoining West Bengal coasts by midnight of Sunday with maximum sustained wind speed of 110-120 kilometres per hour gusting to 135 kmph, the Met department said.

The Met Office has warned of extremely heavy rainfall in the coastal districts of West Bengal and north Odisha on May 26-27. A storm surge of up to 1.5 metres is expected to inundate low-lying areas of coastal West Bengal and Bangladesh at the time of landfall.

Remal is very likely to move nearly northwards, intensify further and cross Bangladesh and adjoining West Bengal coasts between Sagar Island and Khepupara, close to southwest of Mongla port in the neighbouring country, by Sunday midnight as a severe cyclonic storm with maximum sustained wind speed of 110-120 kmph gusting to 135 kmph, the weather office said.